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Pokerteam articles 11

Online Poker Position

In online poker, position means everything. It dictates how you should play, what your online poker strategy should be and what you should expect from everyone else. When you are playing poker online your chances of success hinge on your ability to make the most of your position. With the button continually moving around the table there are going to be times when you are in a different online poker position and you have to play your hand the right way and the right time to maximise your performance.

There are three types of online poker positions and these are known as early, middle and late. Each of these in turn affects what your online poker strategy should be.

Early means acting first which is poker is seen as undesirable as you don’t have the luxury of seeing what other people do before you have to make a move. Given this, in this online poker position you should be more cautious.

In the middle you are sort of neither here nor there. This online poker position allows you to have the element of surprise on your side as no-one knows if you are being overly cautious or overly aggressive. You have had the opportunity to see what some people have done but there are still more to come after you.

Late is the most desirable as you have had the chance to see what everyone else before you has done. Like many things but especially in online poker, information is poker and the later you sit the more information you have.

As a rule of thumb the earlier your online poker position is the stronger your hand should be, while sitting late allows you the chance to play with more drawing hands.

Playing late has two distinct advantages over playing early. Let’s say you are playing early and have a good hand such as J-J but not a great hand. If a player after you raises you are more tempted to lay that down. But what if you are early and have a great hand such as A-A and bet. You now run the risk of scaring everyone away. If you were playing late with that hand people would be more inclined to call your bet especially if it’s a small to medium one.

After every hand your online poker position changes as the dealer moves one to the left. The great thing about online poker is that it takes care of all of this for you and you don’t have to worry about any of it.


William Atkins - Poker Strategist
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