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 Poker Strategy and Position.
 Position in Texas Holdem poker is vital to a winning poker strategy. Position can work for you or against you. The best position at the poker table is the dealer. The dealer gets to act last after the flop. The best position before the flop is the big blind because the big blind gets to act last before the flop but once the flop has come out the big blind is not a good spot to be. Position in poker strategy is what dictates what cards you play. A good hand in the dealer spot may not be a good starting hand in the big blind.
Good position is when you get closer to the dealer or you are the dealer. This is called late position, which means get to act last or close to last. **( Refer to the diagram as to position on a 8 man poker table). This is an advantage because you can see what all the other players do before you have to make a move. Late position is a good position to bluff at pots from because you can get a read on your opponents and see what they do and if you sense weakness you can sometimes take a pot down by just making a bet. The dealer position is the best position at the poker table and this is a position where you can steal pots. Since you get to act after everyone else you can dictate the action from there. If everyone checks to you and shows weakness you can take a stab at the pot. A good poker strategy will leverage this position for bluffs.
Early position is a bad position at the table and should generally be only played from with good starting hands. The players in early positions are the players closest to the left of the dealer. These poker players will have to act first once the flop comes out. So the small blind and the big blind are the first to either check or raise after the flop comes out. This puts you at a disadvantage because everyone gets to see what they do first.
Lets go over all the different positions and as they pertain to poker strategy:
The Dealer ? Is the best position at the poker table after the flop because the dealer gets to see what everyone else does before having to act.
The Late positions are the next two positions close to the dealer. These positions are good positions to raise before the flop from, in hopes of stealing the deal. If you get the dealer to fold you can get the dealer spot also called the button.
The small blind ? is the first position to have to act after the flop comes. This makes it a tough position to apply poker strategy from because you will be the first one to act.
The big blind ? is much like the small blind, this position is 2nd to act and has the same disadvantage.
Under the gun ? is the poker player right after the big blind. This is the first person that gets to play voluntarily, the other two positions are in the hand pretty much with out choice unless there is a pre flop raise then they may fold. Under the gun is the first poker player that has to decide. This is the worst position in poker. Form this position your poker strategy should be to only play premium hands. Hands like AK, AQ, AA, KK or hi pocket pairs. This is for two reasons one if you are at an aggressive table and you try and limp in from there chances are that someone is going to raise the blinds and you have just wasted the blind you posted. Also since you are one of the first poker players to act you don?t have the advantage of seeing what the other players do.
After this are your neutral positions these are not good or bad. What this means you do not have and advantage or disadvantage from these positions.
This covers all your basic positions on an 8 man poker table. Table position is a vital part of poker and what to do when. If you ever watch the WSOP try and see when a player makes a move with so so cards and what is their relation to the dealer. After a while you will see how professional poker players leverage position as part of their poker strategy.
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