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Poker is a positional game. The existence of a dealer button which goes around in a clock-wise direction gives birth to all sorts of strategic situations for player involved in the game. Even though we could probably talk for hours about how one should or would play certain hands from certain positions, the core of the position-theory is simple: being in position is good, being out of position is bad.
What this translates to is that you should be tighter and less aggressive when out of position, while you can afford to be looser and probably more aggressive too when in position.
Being in position means that youre the one who acts last. Being on the button offers you several advantages from several points of view. One of them is that youll be able to watch everyone act before you, make reads and draw conclusions from their actions. Youll be fed a wealth of information before you actually get your say in the matter. That will not only make the decision much easier for you, it will basically give you an increased level of control over what goes on at the table. Its all a little like being the king, while all the other players are your minions. They can do whatever they want, the last word belongs to you anyway.
Being on the button will also put you in just about the best position for attacking the blinds. Never underestimate the value of such an advantage. In FL poker, everything revolves around the blinds, and successful play in relation to the blinds (attacking them successfully and defending them well on occasion) is the key to becoming a winner.
The cut-off (the position on the immediate right of the button, called that because its occupant can almost literally spit into the buttons soup when it comes to blinds stealing) is not a bad position to be either. If youre in the cut-off, youll still have control over much of the table, except the button.
What this tells us is that it makes perfect sense to choose to have position on a person you know is usually a thorn in your side, that is, you should sit on his/her left, because from there, youll be able to control him/her most of the time.
If you are in an early position (under the gun) youll be the first to act, which basically means youll be firing all your shots into the dark. Not only will you be deprived of all information regarding the hands of your opponents, youll also be forced to tell them something about yours, without the others having to pay for it.
This is what the whole position issue comes down to: because every time you act, you give away valuable tells to your opponents, when out of position, youll have to pay for those tells. When in position, youll be getting all those tells free of charge. By sitting on someones left, youll make sure that you get plenty of free information about his hand.
Lets consider the following example: youre under the gun with something like 88 in your pocket and you want to protect your hand so you fire out some warning shots to deter the opposition. Dont you believe for a second though, that theyll be intimidated by your show-boating, especially when the board lands a Q, J, K. Lets continue with the armed combat metaphor though: youre the lone soldier in the clearing who blinded by the light of his own fire shoots blindly into the surrounding bushes. Your opponents, are those lurking in the shadows, who can see you very well. All they have to decide is whether they should throw a flashbang at your feet to make you run away, or whether they should sneak real close to you while you shoot some more of your ammo into the night and finish you off with a headshot. Not exactly the best position to be in, and therefore you should do everything in your power not to be dropped onto that clearing in the first place. By playing tight in early position you make sure you spend as little time as possible playing under unfavorable circumstances. Rakeback will give your game a boost regardless of your skill level.
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