Table Position

When determining which hands to bet on, you must consider your positon at the table.

When in early position (the first three to left of dealer) you are in a weak position. You have no idea what others around the table have, but must bet solely on the strength of your hand. In most situations, you will check, and then fold when someone else bets. In this position, you will only want to play extremely strong hands, like AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AK suited, AQ suited. And if the pot is raised, you will probably discard everything else. You are in the worst possible position, so you must counteract that disadvantage by playing only the strongest hands.

When in middle position (fourth to seventh left of dealer) your position is better, but you still are acting without the benefit of knowing how your hand stacks up against all of other players. In most situations, you will check, and then fold again when someone else bets, like you did in early position. But, you can play a few more hands, like AJ suited, A10 suited, 10 10, 99, 88. Your position is not the best, but by playing stronger hands, you can mimimize the effect of weak positon.

When in late position (eighth to dealer), you are in best position. You have the most information about everyone around the table. Many times you can just take pots just by betting or raising (this is called stealing the blinds), and you will be able to take control over the table just by having superior position. At times, you can win the pot with any two cards. Sometimes it doesn't matter what you have, you can steal the pot by virtue of your superior position.

Texas Hold Em sounds very simple, however, it takes a lot of time at the table to pick up the nuances of the game. This site was created to help the average player improve their game. We'll help you with which starting hands to play, and how to bet. We'll show you how position impacts your starting hand selection, how to calculate pot odds, and wheter to call, raise, or fold. We'll help you determine your poker strategy. One that you will use to make more money. We'll even identify trap hands, which look good, but usually cost you big money. So... shuffle up and deal!