Sign of Experience
As a beginning online poker player, when asked to describe a hand, what’s the most common element that is talked about? That’s easy, the hole online poker cards. But talk to a pro and he’ll tell you about that same hand starting in a very different way. He’ll tell you where he was at the table first. This is something all pros inherently do, they take into consideration position. And if you’re not thinking in terms of position, then you’re clearly missing out on a lot of potential profit. The general theory is you’ll want to play more poker hands in position and less out of position. And by in position I mean closer to the button. This simply means that you get to act last or closer to last than your opponents. The advantage of position is quite logical when you think of it. You get information first. You get to see the flop, as well as get to see what your opponents are going to do, how they bet, if they check, or if they hesitate while looking at the flop. This leads to the three reasons that playing a hand in late position is more profitable than playing that same hand in early position. First, you’re more likely to fold a winning hand in early position than you are in late position since you’re essentially playing a guessing game at your opponents’ hands when they have position on you. Second, when you have a winning hand, you’re going to make more money on it in a later position since you’ll have the option to reraise a bet and thus get more money in the pot. Finally, your losing hands won’t cost as much. You’ll be able to get away from a losing hand more quickly due to being able to read the bets of your opponents and put him or her on a hand range. And when you do the calculations, if your hand is beaten by that hand range, then you have an easier time folding in position.
