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25th Lecture - Maximizing Profit By Playing Your Position

Maximizing Profit By Playing Your Position
The following lecture was the 25th Tuesday Session, held March 16, 1999, and later appeared
in Card Player magazine.

If You Don't Know Anything About Playing Position, You Probably Are Costing
Yourself a Lot of Money!

Position is one of the most important concepts in poker. We'll deal with it today. If I'm in a
game with a world-class player - such as a Doyle Brunson, a Roy Cooke, or a Linda Johnson -
I want to act after they do. Most days, there's just no way I'm going to give this type of player
a positional advantage by letting them sit to my left and beat up on me.

I just mentioned Linda Johnson for a reason. Yesterday I was talking with several people
while waiting for a game to start. The tired old question arose about who is the best woman
poker player. I said that I was astonished by the skills, insights, and decorum of at least a
dozen women players. But, in my mind, there should be no argument. My choice is Linda
Johnson, because I believe she has the strongest analytical skills of all the female superstars
usually cited.

Of course, Linda hates to be called a "women player." She considers herself simply a player.
That's fine with me, because in my book she ranks near the top of my list of most-respected
opponents - male or female. Linda is sometimes too busy quarreling with me about rules and
such to have time to set the record straight about her prowess as a player. So, I thought I'd do
it for her. And now…

Position is what we're about to discuss. This was the 25th in my serious of Tuesday Session
classroom lectures at Mike Caro University of Poker, Gaming, and Life Strategy. It was
delivered March 16, 1999 and has been specially enhanced for Card Player. The title of my
talk was…

Maximizing Profit by Playing Your Position

If a good player has position against a great player, the good player will win!

Players tend to undervalue the incredible advantage of having the best position. When
you act first, you usually need to be vastly superior to your opponent just to break-
even.

I'm not talking about a single hand. Anyone can win any hand at any time. On a single
hand, position can even work against you. I'm talking about the long run. Superior
seating position is very powerful when measured over hundreds of hands. Among
equally skilled opponents in three-or-more-handed games, the player to the left
eventually stomps on the player to the right. You can try to sandbag (check and raise)
to compensate for poor position, but that tactic can only partially offset the
disadvantage of acting first. When your opponent gets to see what you do before
acting, he will eventually take your money unless you are a greatly more
accomplished poker player.

Here's something I've said so many times I've lost count, but it needs to be said again
now: You want loose players to your right so that you can act after they do. They
supply the most money, and you want to be in a position to take advantage of them.
Players who are aggressive and deceptive also belong on your right, because if,
instead, you let them act immediately after you, they can interfere with your strategy
and hamper your ability to control the game. Often you must choose between having a
loose player and a dangerous player to your right. If you have a chance to change
seats, make the decision by gauging how loose or how dangerous these players are.
Also consider other opponents who may be near to your right or left, though not
immediately adjacent.

Be careful about reraising from the small blind position.

You'll diminish your pot odds and you'll have the worst position throughout all future
betting rounds. Your first inclination should be - if your hand is at all playable - to
take advantage of pot odds by just calling in the small blind position.

The best visible seven-card stud hand always has the worst position.

Obviously, that hand must act first. But you should consider how likely it is that the
same hand will continue to act first in deciding your next strategy. It is correct to raise
frequently in a three-way (or sometimes more-way) pot when the high hand bets in
seven-card stud and opponents remain behind you. This is a time when limiting the
field with medium-strong and vulnerable hands can be quite profitable. Remember,
when opposing hands seem about equal to yours, your primary quest often is to gain
position. I'm not a big advocate of "limit-the-field" theory. There are clearly times for
it, but the tactic is generally overused and misunderstood. When you can thin the field
and improve your position with a vulnerable hand, that's often a time you should raise
with the hope of driving opponents out of the pot. In fact, though nobody seems to say
much about it, improving your position relative to your opponents is often the main
benefit of thinning the field. Also see point 6.

Don't forget to raise on 4th Street in seven-card stud.

This occasional standard maneuver, first popularized by Chip Reese, will save you
money by making an opponent check into you when the stakes double on 5th Street.
Don't overuse this, though. And the more likely your opponent is to remain the high
hand, the more effective this strategy is.

In hold 'em, it's usually more profitable to make an aggressive raise just before

the button than on the button.
When you're on the button, you are already guaranteed best (last) position on future
betting rounds. When you're one or two seats before the button, it's often worth a
daring raise to attempt to gain that position.

While limiting the field often makes no sense, limiting the field by chasing away

players behind you usually makes a lot of sense!
The point is, you shouldn't care so much about being drawn out on when you have the
best hands. Sometimes you want opponents out, sometimes in. Usually, a raise with
the pure intention of saving yourself from being drawn out on is ill advised (though
sometimes it's correct). However, the intention of chasing away competition behind
you when you have a medium to medium-strong hand is sensible - and profitable if it
works.

Short-handed or late-handed means a constant quest for position.

Three of the key tactics are: (1) Raise before the button to gain position; (2) raise on
the button to maximize position; (3) reraise liberally from the big blind when heads-up
against the small blind.

You can gain position by using tells to mentally "eliminate" players who will act

after you.
When you do this, you effectively move up to the next more-profitable position for
each opponent you can identify as a folder. (The effect isn't quite like moving up a
whole position, even if your tell is 100 percent accurate. Why? The "bunching factor"
of quality cards remaining is slightly different when a late player is "eliminated" than
when an early player folds.)

Playing your position heads-up.

There's no such thing as seating position heads-up, because you and your opponent
will take turns acting last. But, on several occasions I've been astonished by a heads-
up player changing seats in an apparent attempt to get position on me! - MC