hey guys i know this is a dumb question but im a newb and everyones saying position is very very important, the coaching videos ive been watching and the books ive been reading all say its crucial. Im very new to all the terms of poker and everything so i need someone to explain this like theyre explaining it to a 4 year old What position is best to be in? Whats worst? I usually play .10/.20 blinds with around 8-10 peeple if that helps. Anything helps. thanks guys.

Position allows you to see what everyone else does before you act.

The best position you can have, is the button. You are always last to act throughout the hand.

so UTG, first to act is early position, as you move around you come into Middle Position and then Late Position.

Late position is where you want to be stealing and generally playing looser. From early to middle position you should be playing fairly tight

The more experienced you get the more and more you will realise the importance of Position!

Position is extremely important in NLHE, one of the most important aspects of the game. Later is better than earlier, hence the button (dealer) is the best position, and the blinds are the worst. UTG (under the gun) is first to act preflop and has the worst position before the flop but has position on the blinds postflop. So someone raising from UTG preflop will usually have a very strong hand.

Position is so important since those acting last have so much more information about what everyone else has done prior to making their decision.

Position means where you act in the betting sequence. Acting later than an opponent is almost always an advantage, so acting last (or almost-last) is playing "in position". Acting first is playing "out of position."

In button games such as hold 'em, the player with the dealer button has best absolute position. She doesn't have to act on any round until everyone else has acted once. That's a huge advantage.

Relative position is the right to act last given the probable bettor or raiser, and it generally means that sitting to the bettor or raiser's right is advantageous. For example, if four players, A, B, C, and D act in that order, and player C raised preflop, then player B has a certain benefit of relative position. If B checks the flop and C bets as expected, B can wait until D and A act before having to act again. That can also be a huge advantage for several reasons. B can close the action by calling, without having to worry about any raises in that betting round. B can check/raise his monsters after the other opponents have acted, trapping the field. In LHE B can check/raise his strong draws for value, also trapping the field and getting 3:1 (if three opponents all call the raise) on a draw. Good hands are even better when you have strong relative position, i.e. are sitting to the bettor's/raiser's right.

For more on absolute position read a good poker book for beginners such as GSIHE. For more on relative position read a good intermediate/advanced book; NLHE:TAP has some great examples.

Hi elvon, i don't consider myself an expert, but i will try to explain the idea of position as best i can.

i see the word position used in a couple of different circumstances;
1) to refer to where you are in relation to the blinds at the start of the hand ('early', 'middle' and 'late' positions)
2) to refer to where you are in relation to remaining active players later in the hand
(ie 'it got heads up and i had position on the guy', this means that only you and one other player are still in the hand, and you get to act after him on every betting street to come)
sometimes people in these threads will use acronyms:
'IP' = In Position = they get to act AFTER the other guy(s)
'OOP' = Out Of Position = they have to act BEFORE the other guy(s)
IP is generally better, for lots of reasons, but the one i 'got' the easiest is that it's good because you get to see what the other guy does first, and so you have more information when making decisions than your opponent(s) and so are likely to make better decisions.

as to 1), you will see acronyms such as:
EP = early position
MP = middle position
LP = late position

at a ten-handed table I would define them like this:
EP = first 3 players to act after the BB
MP = next 3 players
LP = last 2 players (aka 'cutoff' and 'button' seats)
others may disagree and define them slightly differently, some may define the last THREE seats to act as late, or define 1 more or less as early position, but i doubt you'll see massive differences (i hope, or maybe i need to start one of these threads for myself...)

hope you find this helpful and not too confusingly written, never realised how much i could write about position before, and sorry if i repeat what others have said above, i'm a slow typist.

oh, and having read AKQJT's post, his description of relative position is excellent information, succinctly put, but without wanting to step on any toes, i think maybe you should concentrate on understanding absolute position first, before moving on to understanding relative position. speaking from personal experience, i like to learn things one bit at a time, and i think if i had tried to learn about both at the same time, i might have ended up more confused than when i started

regards, andy

Perfect. thanks so much guys. u guys are the best

I actually agree with you. This is a classic case where there's a balance between wanting to answer a question thoroughly and wanting to point beginners to beginner-specific information.

I appreciate the feedback and in future I think I'll deal with this a little differently -- post the beginner info here and then write a blog post with the more advanced stuff that people can consult once they've mastered the basics. Thanks for the idea!

Rolf Slutbang explains relative position with a nice example:
video