Poker Table Position: Relative Versus Actual
by Dougie Goguen | Nov 24 2011
Learn where you're really playing from with our look at relative positioning in poker.
Everyone knows the importance of position at the poker table. Acting last and seeing how your opponents play before making your own decisions can give you a tremendous advantage at the table, to say the least, but there's actually two forms of position: actual and relative. While the former is obvious and known to everyone, the latter is generally only known to the more advanced players. Relative position is your position in the hand in relation to the person who's raised in the pre-flop round.
Play online poker free at Bodog today!In Texas Hold 'Em poker, there's frequently going to be a player that raises before the flop and astute player pay attention where they are compared to the raiser; their position can be good or bad depending on how many players are left to act after you. Boiled down to the essence, it's better to be on the immediate right of the preflop raiser rather than on the left, even if your "actual" position at the table compared to the blinds is superior.
Your relative position can occasionally play such an important factor in a hand that your actual position is rendered meaningless, even if you're on the button. When a player makes a bet on the flop, it resets how the other players in the hand are involved. Here's an example of relative position: Player 1 checks after the big blind. Player 2 checks. Player 3 raises, essentially meaning that player 4 is now in the hot spot. Let's say they call, Player 1 folds and Player 2 calls.
Player 3's bet in that situation forces Players 1 and 2 to act again, and that means that Player 4 is no longer in position. Essentially, when you're in that position, you're going to want to treat it exactly as if you were in the Player 1 slot all over again, and take another look at your pocket cards to see if they're suitable for the betting action that's now taking place.
It boils down to this: the best relative position to have is to be to the immediate right of the preflop raiser. This is because your action will close off the betting on that particular round if the raiser does indeed make an expected continuation bet. The worst relative position to have is to be to the immediate left of the preflop raiser. This is because you'll be the first to act if the preflop raiser makes a continuation bet.
Want to compete for big prizes with small buy-ins? Check out Bodog's online poker tournaments!Take the time to evaluate your relative position in the next few poker hands you play. You may well find that you plug a leak in your game that you didn't even know was there.
