So i have been reading about position and what it is, but maybe i just need a simple explanation about it.


If Im understanding correctly we play specific types of tight hands when we are in early position because we don't know what the plyers behind us will do. Conversely we play other types of looser hands when we are in late position because we have more info on what happened in front of us. Am i correct in this or am i missing another element?

Also, what do you do if the whole table is not playing in position? like some donkey in early position or a whole table of them? Do you just toss the idea of position away since now its not relevant at that point?

Thanks again.

In addition to the increased information, when you are opening a hand later in position, there are fewer hands behind you, so you hand is stronger.

Why do you think it's not relevant?

That is the gist of it. When we are in early position, there is a much greater chance of one of the remaining players waking up with a big hand, simply because there are still more players to act. Furthermore, we are likely to play the hand out of position, so we want to have a stronger hand on average to account for our positional disadvantage. When it is folded to us in late position, we have fewer players left to act, and hence fewer players who can wake up with a big hand. We also have a higher chance of playing in position against one of the players in the blind, in which case we will have a positional advantage. This is why you can open so liberally on the button. There are only two players, who will have weak hands a lot of the time, and if they do choose to play, you get to play in position against then.

Your preflop action will differ if you are RFIng vs if you are acting after a field of limpers. In particular you are going to be more likely to choose a passive action with some of your weaker but still playable hands, like AJo, suited aces, weaker suited broadways, small pocket pairs, suited connectors. IMO, you need a substantially stronger hand to raise against a field of limpers than you do to RFI in the same position. After all, someone could be trapping. And here the quality of the limps will come into play. OTOH, against a single limper, or even multiple extremely loose limpers, we might be tempted to punish with our entire RFI range. It also matters, do these players have a raising range? Because if they are raising strong hands, but limping weak ones, then this is an even better situation to be against.

Position is maybe the single most important concept in poker.
Nearly everything else depends on this.

If you think you can just "toss the idea" you know very little about real poker strategy and should start studying the basics.

Also, position is far more important postflop than preflop. If you are ignoring postflop, you are missing the forest for the trees and that’s probably why you’re having trouble understanding.

The big, overarching point is that you would rather be last to act, all the time, so that you can see your opponents’ actions and they can’t see yours. The reason we play tighter in early position is because being out of position postflop hurts our hand value, and weaker hands become unprofitable to play.

I would add that it’s not just whether or not we win hands more often IP, but also that we have a better ability to control the size of the pot when we have position. Just as one simple example- consider a hand where you flop a flush. Naturally you want to build a pot. If you are out of position you have a dilemma; do you bet and risk having your opponent fold or do you check, hoping he bets (and maybe will call a check raise)? IP you have no such issue. If he checks, likely he’s weak; you can check back and hope he improves on the turn (or decides to bluff). If he bets you have a choice of flatting, hoping to induce a turn bet or raising for value. In any case building a pot is much easier.

In cases where your drawing a similar logic applies; it’s much easier to build a pot when you hit and to minimize your loss when you don’t if you have position. It’s really a play from limit poker, but the “free card” play often works at NL. If you have position, make a small flop bet with a draw and an opponent (assuming he calls) will often check the turn, allowing you to check back when you miss.