Poker Position in Texas Hold'em

Poker position in Texas Hold’em refers to the place you are in, on the poker table, in relation to the dealer button. The different table positioning, either early position, middle position or late position, can vastly influence the result of the Texas Hold’em poker.

Your poker position in Texas Hold’em largely influences how a player will play his hand, and this is why it is important to read about Texas Hold'em poker positioning as early in the game as possible.

Early position - This Texas Hold'em poker position includes the first five players seated after the button. When you play before the flop, if you call in early position, you are risking your money, without knowing how many players have raised. This means that because of lack of knowledge you might bet money on a weaker and losing hand, or decide not to bet on a hand that can win. In both cases the result is the same, you have a larger risk of losing money with early position.

Middle Position - This position consists of the next three players after the early position players. Middle position does give you information about how the rest of the players bet, but it is still not whole. In middle position there might be players in front of you, that haven’t played before, that can influence how you would play your hand, had you been positioned later on the table.

Late Position - This is where the button, and the player before the button, are situated, and is the best position in the game. With this Texas Hold'em poker position, the player is always the last to act, except on the first round of the pre-flop. This way, the button gets to see all the bets that are made before his is made, and thus he can take into account how the other players chose to bet, and then react accordingly. The person playing the button is switched whenever a new hand is drawn, so no players will be the sole beneficiaries of the position.