The Value of Position in No Limit

By Nick Eisel

This month I want to talk about a term that every poker player knows: position.

You'd think that if every player knew this term, they'd also know what it meant and how it should affect the way they play the game, but this is far from the truth. I'm of the opinion that position should be the overall driving factor that dictates how you play a hand in No-Limit cash games. It should always be on your mind, and be a huge factor in the decisions you make. I also believe that this is why the good No-Limit players have such a huge edge over the mediocre or bad players.

The first aspect of position that most bad or inexperienced players don't understand is that lots of hands just don't play well out of position. For instance, take a full nine or ten-handed ring game and give the average player AQ off-suit under the gun. I guarantee you that the average player is at least calling and the more aggressive players like to raise the hand.

I don't even play AQo in early position at the average ring game (some conditions or image could change this of course). The reason for this is that you are likely to face a raise behind you and this is very problematic.

First of all, you shouldn't even like your hand anymore after there is a raise. You have two big unsuited cards and it is very hard to make money with them unless you flop a big hand like top two and someone else has AK and is willing to pay off. If the raiser has a smaller pair, it's hard to get money out of him if you hit and he doesn't, and you just might get stacked if you can't get away from top pair. So, even if you do call the raise, you are now out of position with a hand that is hard to make money with because it is obvious when you hit it, and you also stand to lose a lot of money if an A flops and the raiser has AK. None of this takes into account what happens when you both miss, and you then have to fold to the continuation bet.

All of this happens because you decided to enter the pot out of position with a hand that is poor at extracting money.

I'm sure there are those of you out there saying that it doesn't always have to be this way, and you are right. You can make a move here or there if you think your opponent also missed the flop or will lay his hand down. The problem is that to do so you have to lead into him without any information on his hand since he hasn't acted yet, or you have to attempt a check-raise which is very expensive when it fails. All in all, this is a very bad deal and the only way you are going to make money is if you hit the flop very hard and he has enough to pay you off. If this was something that happened regularly, any two cards would be playable!

Despite all of the bad things I just listed about playing what most people consider to be a premium hand in AQo in early position, they not only play it, but they play far, far worse hands like KJo and other trap hands.

I feel like I've made my point here and hopefully it will cause anyone reading this to really tighten up their standards from early position as you are either limping and folding to a raise too often, or putting yourself in a tough situation after the flop comes.

The other side of the coin on this issue, of course, is that you can play more hands when you're in position. This much is obvious. What isn't obvious is that you still have to be very careful with these midrange broadway hands, or something like AJo or ATo in late position, as they are still pretty bad at extracting money from opponents. I definitely wouldn't be calling raises with them, though I may three bet simply because the power of position in future betting can allow me to win the pot with an inferior hand against a tight opponent.

One thing that is very strong in most games is raising a bunch of limpers with a "big pot" hand like JTs, with the hope of building a big pot should you flop a good draw. Sometimes the play is also alright with small pairs in online games because the players are tighter overall and may just fold preflop and allow you to pick up the dead money. In a live game, though, I'd just limp the small pair as the value of hitting a set in a calling-station live game is much higher than any dead pre-flop money you may pick up.

Just as in limit poker, you should be raising if you're first in from a late position and decide to play. You will have the power of position on your side if you can fold out the button.

I realize most of you have heard these concepts before, but clearly they weren't fully understood. I don't know many people who aren't at least limping AQo in any position pre-flop. Position should override hand value in almost all cases, and hopefully this article will be a wake up call to re-evaluate your game and get back on track.