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There is one major piece of knowledge you have to have to be on any kind of sports team. It transcends through all the games, football, baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer, any of them, you have to have the knowledge of a position. You can’t be a quarterback, shortstop, center, right wing or goalie without knowing the position first. It’s the same thing with winning a game of poker.
This aspect of the game is probably the most important bit it is the one thing most new poker players will overlook. Inexperience poker players will tell you it is all about the cards. Poker Pro’s know that cards is one of the last things they consider when playing a hand. Let’s take a look at some of the positions around a full poker table.
The Early Position
Early position is the three players to the left of the dealer and is considered the worst position at a poker table. You have to act with almost no information about the strength of hands behind you. For this reason, you should only consider playing very strong starting hands. Since you hand will always be strong, consider playing early position hands for a raise most of the time. Playing your hand for a raise will let you see what kind of hands are behind you, by being called or re-raised, and let you take the lead at the table for the hand.
The Middle Position
The next three players after early position are considered in middle position. You can l0osen you starting hand requirement a little here but there are still a few players behind you to play so you still need to proceed with caution. If you are going to play from this position and are first in the pot or only have one caller in front of you, playing for a raise would be sound strategy, other wise just call.
The Late Position
The last two position’s before the blinds and the most optimal position in poker. Here you will have almost all the information you need to make a quality decision. You can play only strong starting hands if there is a lot of raising in front of you. If there are a lot of calls in front of you, most any drawing hand will play and if first in almost always raise.
There are a lot of books that have starting hand charts in them and will explain what hands you should play in these positions. If you are a total new player to poker, these books can be extremely helpful. I would suggest sticking strictly to the advice until a little experience is gathered. After you have played the game awhile, you will be able to recognize these cards and be able to institute a strategy more based on table play than proper poker strategy.
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