Definition of position: Your relationship to
other players at your poker table in terms of
the betting for a particular hand. Developing an
understanding of position will help you
immensely in your internet poker game.
Position is important in most competitive games
including internet poker. In baseball the home
team is given the advantage of batting last.
Batting last allows the home team in the final
inning to know precisely what to aim for. In a
tied game, only one run matters. Down by three,
then three runs are a necessity. In the top part
of the inning the visiting team would not know
for sure if going for one safe run was better
than taking the risk of going for two runs. In
football, physical position, having the wind at
your back, often plays an enormous role in who
wins a game.
In Texas Holdem poker, the value of position is
generally self-evident. You want your poker
opponents to make their decisions before you do,
and then you want the final say, the last word.
On top of that, Holdem is a game where it is
common that nobody has much of anything. You are
making decisions based on whose "nothing" will
outplay the others to win the pot. While
superior position in internet poker doesn't
automatically win hands, it does make it more
likely you will make better bets -- in the same
way that a general who positions his troops on
terrain he is familiar with will have an edge.
But position in Texas Holdem is simplistic. Last
is basically best, particularly when only two
players are in a pot. First position, or second
position behind a maniac, or position in front
of a maniac... sometimes these will offer
positional advantages too, but for the most
part, just being last to act is such a
significant edge that all good poker players
will tend to play more hands when they are in
late position and less hands when they are in
early position.
Position in Seven Card Stud and Stud High-Low
Poker is far different. Position here tends to
be variable. The highest board showing acts
first from fourth street on, so if king high
bets first on fourth street, another player who
gets an ace or pairs deuces might act first on
fifth street. You do still tend to have an
advantage over the player to your immediate
right, but positional considerations are
complicated in the Stud games. Certain hands
should be more playable when you are not the
high hand, while representing hands becomes more
important when you act first. Some hands can be
played more aggressively when an opponent shows
a king or ace, meaning they will likely be
forced to act first throughout the hand.
But the greatest difference in positional
complexity comes in comparing Omaha HiLo to
Omaha. Last position continues to have some
general advantages, but it comes with
disadvantages too. For example, bluffing from
last position is suicide against good players.
The bluffing arrow is almost removed from your
quiver when you are last. In Holdem having
middle position seldom offers any advantages but
middle position is the prime bluffing position
in Omaha.
At the same time though, middle position has
significant disadvantages because Omaha High Low
is a game of "sharing" pots. If you have the nut
hand one way or the other, and the early
position bettor bets the other nut hand, middle
position becomes very hard to play. Most people,
fortunately, play very poorly here. For example,
they will raise their nut high hand, driving out
players behind, and then splitting the pot with
the initial low bettor. The correct action will
usually be to just call the low bettor, and hope
for overcalls - but sometimes this will NOT be
right! For example, if you suspect a player
behind you also has the nut low, if you raise
with the high hand you will get two bets into
the pot from the low hands instead of just one.
Holdem's simplistic last-is-best positional
concept is out the window in Holdem. Very
generally, if you have a low hand, betting first
is advantageous, while having the nut high hand
is best in last position. Suppose you have the
nut flush on the river against more than one
player. Betting first is totally action killing.
The best you will do is get called. If you are
last with the nuts, you might get a bet in front
of you, or you might even get a check raise bluff
from an opponent who thinks you are bluffing. In
contrast, betting the low from early position
can lead to scrambling where the later position
players try to drive each other out; or, if
there is another nut low in play, betting will
tend to slow that player down so that they don't
raise in three-way situations.
Moving from Omaha to other games, there are
often considerations that, while not totally
different, are more complex - even if some other
concepts are not as complicated. (Winning more
than your share of situations when no one has
much of anything is more important in Holdem
than Omaha for instance.) Position always
matters, but it is much more variable in Stud
and Omaha than in Holdem. You have to "think on
your feet" about position more in Stud and
Omaha.
Manipulating position is a skill that Holdem
players need to focus on developing more deeply
when moving to other games.
