The Power of Early Position in Hold’em

By Au.PokerListings.com

Players of hold’em poker talk a lot about position. Position is a key factor in a game like hold’em, where players closest to the left of the dealer act first on every round. This means that the later you act in the hand, the more information you have, and information is gold to a savvy poker player. It is clear that the power of late position in hold’em is great, but what about early position? Believe it or not, having early position in hold’em can bring some power with it too.

Early Position Bets Get More Respect

Because the other players are generally aware of how vulnerable an early position hand is, a player raising from an early position will get much more respect than a raiser in late position. In most cases, this intuition is correct. Because you are at a positional disadvantage, you should be much stricter about the range of hands you will call or raise with pre-flop from an early position. However if you do opt to attempt a bluff, betting out from an early position will give an added image of strength and can make your bluffs more successful.

Early Position Players Get First Crack at The Pot

The statistical reality is that most flops miss most people. This means that providing there are not too many players in the hand, there is a good chance that the flop will miss everybody. In situations like this, the player who is first to bet, the one that takes the lead in the hand, is likely to win the pot. If you are the first to act, you get the first chance to bet, and can win the pot in this way. You also have the opportunity to make a probe bet, a small bet that allows you to get away cheaply if you are shown strength by a raise, but will give you an idea of how strong your opponents are.

Early Position Players Can Control the Pot

Controlling the pot means regulating the size of the pot by the size of your betting. If you keep the pot small, it will be easier for you to get to the river with drawing cards or a somewhat marginal hand. If you let the pot get big quickly, you are in a better position to get all of your opponents’ chips in the middle if you are very strong or force them out with an all in bet if you want to get rid of draws. When you act first, you set the tone of the betting by what you do. In this way you have a strong influence on how big the pot gets early on.

All things being equal, in a poker game you have your biggest advantage in late position. A savvy, aggressive player makes the most of his or her opportunities, however, and can gain an advantage even when he or she is one of the first to act.