Trusted Safe Poker 2
The capability to assess the effect of your table position and also your opponent's table position on the value of bets will improve the outcome of your poker play. You'll make a far more accurate assessment of the value of your hand and you'll also have a much better feeling of what your opponents are playing with.
Poker has four different table positions, in spite of how many people are playing in the game: there is the dealer's position, the early position, the middle position, as well as the late or end position.
Players in early positions should avoid playing marginal hands and should limit themselves to playing only strong to very strong hands. The middle position players should assess how the early players have acted. If the early players haven't raised the stake, then the middle position player can raise with a marginal to strong hand.
For obvious reasons, those finally position know the most about their opponents and can play aggressively. Last position players can bet with a wide variety of starting hands, even relatively weak hands, if their opponents have not acted. They can choose to call a bet knowing that no one will probably raise, thereby reducing your risk.
In a full game with ten players, as an early player or EP, you are among the first three players to act. The individual immediately to the left of the big blind is said to be "Under the Gun" or UTG. They're under the most pressure to act, to start the action with a raise.
Middle position usually begins at the 4th player in sequence; the fourth player left of the dealer or even the button, as is sometimes the matter in online trusted safe poker. Like early positioned players, middle position players or MP players still have relatively few advantages and considerable drawbacks relating to their position within the game.
Being an MP player, you are at risk of "squeeze" plays. A squeeze play, as the name suggests, is approximately being forced to act, generally to call a bet by an early position player, whenever you know you are prone to get raised. Conversely, within the middle position, you have an advantage over early position players and you may make a solid assessment of their cards. Particularly should you have a strong hand, you may bet and play aggressively within the middle position, and you should. If your hand is marginal, you need to consider the likelihood that the very last position players shall take a stand.
The end position or late position players, called LP players for short, possess the strongest position at the table since they are the last people to act. The cut-off player, called the CO for short, will be the player within the second to last position. LP player have the strongest position while they can make a strategic play, a steal or bluff, to win the pot if nobody else has made a move. In Texas Hold'em, the last player's position-based advantage is the strongest and their chance to make a steal bluff will be the strongest.
At the same time, if EP or MP players have raised, being an LP player, you need to find out whether they are bluffing or playing with a solid hand. If you make the wrong assessment, drawing about what you know about the cards as well as your opponents' styles of play, it can be costly so weigh the information you've got carefully.
Another situation that the LP player experiences almost exclusively is the semi-bluff, involving raising an EP or MP player who made a bet. To make a semi-bluff, you need to possess a fairly strong hand, for example a straight or possibly a flush. You can raise to scare your opponents, encouraging them to fold. The semi-bluff also encourages your opponents to think about you and what you might have before they make their next move whenever they are considering a raise on the next round.
To make the most of position strategy, you may need to be aware of your role all the time. It sounds easy but it is not; getting caught up in your hand leaves you oblivious, so you will need to practice focusing on your job for each individual hand at each individual turn.
The typical rule to keep in mind goes something like this: play strong hands in early positions; the later your position, the better your chance of making a winning play with a marginal hand, such as a flush or possibly a straight.