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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

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