Lesson 2: The importance of position and seat selection
Once you have chosen your game and table, you must select a seat where you will get the most value for your money. Poker players place their bets in a clockwise direction. It is worthwhile to identify the big Bankroll players and to sit at the position to their left. By doing so all the betting and raising will be done by the time the action reaches you.
The importance of position can not be stressed enough. Even the same cards dealt in the same order may produce vastly different results depending on where you're sitting. Playable Hands and winning combinations in late positions will often be unplayable in earlier positions.
If you are first, second or third to play after the dealer button you are in what's called the "early" position (also known as "up front"). If you are the dealer button (also known as "playing the button") or one or two seats to the right of the dealer button you are in what's called the "late" position. All players in-between (and normally facing the dealer across the table) are in the "middle" position.
If you are in the "early" position, the types of hands you must try to play are restricted to high cards or good hands, since you have no way of knowing what the other players in the group are holding.
If you are playing the "middle" position, you'll have players waiting behind you and others that have already played. The chance of a raise is slightly less in this position and there are already several players in the pot so you will get better odds playing weaker hands.
The advantage of being in the "late" position is that you get a chance to see almost every play so far, and will be able to read how other players feel about their hands by the way they have checked, bet, raised or re-raised.
It is a great advantage to be in the "playing the button" position, since you are last to act in each betting round of that hand. Like the "late" positions, you can play a much weaker hand than normal and can use bluffing more often to your advantage, particularly as the game advances.
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