The majority of players at a beginner to intermediate
level will be fairly familiar with the importance of
position in a game of
Texas Holdem. In general, if you are one of the last to
act in a hand, you will have the advantage of seeing how
your opponents act before you. Therefore you will have the
ability to make a better play based on the extra information
you have been given through your opponent(s) actions.
However, there will be a few occasions where your apparent
'late position' in a hand will not be as beneficial of you
think.
A concept that few players take into consideration during a
hand is the principle of 'relative position'. If you are in
late position, you may think that you are in a great spot
for the rest of the hand. However, problems arise when an
opponent to your immediate right makes a raise before the
flop, and yourself and another player after you call.
It is very common for players that have called a raise
preflop to check to the initial raiser to see how they
react. This is because the continuation bet has become an
increasingly popular play over recent years, and so players
that have to act before the preflop raiser will check in
anticipation of this continuation bet. Therefore, it is not
possible to gain any information on players that have
checked to the preflop raiser, as they could have quite
easily checked with either a strong hand, a drawing hand or
no hand at all.
If we are acting after the preflop raiser, this can put us
in a very sticky situation. We are essentially sandwiched
between a continuation bet and a player that has shown us no
information by checking. Therefore despite the fact we
entered the hand with the belief that we would have the
advantage of having the extra information by acting last, we
actually have very little knowledge about what our opponents
are holding.
If we are sandwiched between these two players, the last
thing we want in this position is a mediocre hand or a
drawing hand. This is because if we call the continuation
bet from the initial preflop raiser, we may get raised by
the player that checked in the first place. Hands like these
can get very expensive, and when you compile this with the
fact that we are unlikely to know whether we have the best
hand or not, it is fair to say that we are usually in an
unprofitable situation.
It is all too common to simply call the continuation bet in
the hopes of improving on the turn, only to be reraised by
the player that checked at the start of the round. Now we're
in a really sticky situation where we have to decide to
either play on and hope for the best, or to cut our losses
and get out of the hand. The best move in these particular
situations however is to not get into them in the first
place.
Conversely, in hands where you might be in an early
position, the effects of relative position can work to your
advantage. If you call with a drawing hand before the flop,
and find that one player has raised and another has called
after them, you will be in a much better position than you
think. You will be the last player to act on the flop
betting round if the initial raiser makes a continuation
bet, as they will effectively be resetting the action for
the hand, as the action will come back to you to make your
play when faced with the bet.
It may seem a little confusing at first, but relative
position isn't too difficult of a concept to grasp. On paper
it can be a little tricky to explain, but all you have to
watch out for at the poker table is calling a preflop raise,
and being sandwiched by another player that calls after you.
Just be aware of when relative position will be coming into
play, and avoid calling with a mediocre hand if you are the
first player to call after a raiser.
Relative position is undoubtedly an important concept to
take into account at the poker table, and is not one that
should be avoided. There are so many players that fall into
similar traps as the one above without suspecting a thing,
so make sure that you are not one of them. It is all well
and good to know how good late position might be, but it is
simply dangerous to play in a hand where you are unlikely to
have the faintest idea about what your opponents are
holding, regardless of whether you are acting last or not.
