5 advantages of playing in position
One of the most important elements of poker strategy is position.
Having position in a hand provides you with a range of advantages and greatly simplifies the gameplay. By acting last on each street, you give your opponent less information than they give you, control the size of the pot, and have better maneuverability.
In this article, we will discuss 5 effective lines in position that you should definitely incorporate into your game to increase your winnings.
Table of Contents:
- Value betting with medium-strength hands
Bluff continuation bet
One of the simple and most frequently used poker moves is the continuation bet on the flop as a bluff.
In position, the continuation bet works more effectively because by betting, you apply more pressure on your opponent.
When you have positional advantage, your opponent must act first on each street. They don’t have the opportunity to outplay you on the turn by expecting you to show weakness and then attacking it. Consequently, if they haven’t connected with the flop, they’re left with no choice but to fold to your aggression.
Let’s consider how the positional factor influences the success of continuation betting on the flop in multi-player reports in Hand2Note 4. With this feature, you can identify trends among opponents who share a similar playing style and develop exploitative strategies against them.
For the report, I selected all the fishes with a VPIP stat of over 40%, each of whom has at least 100 hands in my database. Then, I filtered out the situations where they called an open raise preflop out of position:
As we can see, even stubborn opponents, like fishes, tend to fold to a continuation bet every other time when playing out of position.
In Hand2Note 4, you can compare reports side by side to track how different trends depend on various parameters. I pinned the obtained report, and then in a new report on the right, I changed the scenario, indicating that the fishes called the preflop raise in position:
We can notice that when playing in position, these players resist continuation bets more often, folding only in 40% of cases.
Therefore, when you’re in a hand with a fish, on the flop, you should bluff with a continuation bet more often when you have positional advantage, and conversely, use this tactic less frequently when you’re out of position.
Pot control
Position gives you the opportunity to control the size of the pot, allowing you to decide when to inflate it and when to keep it small.
If you have a medium-strength hand on the flop, and your opponent is unlikely to call three streets of bets with a weaker hand, you’re not interested in playing for a huge pot. Hence, on one of the streets, you’ll need to check back.
This kind of play can induce an aggressive opponent to bluff on the next streets, which you can easily call with your medium-strength hand.
Let’s consider an example:
We opened with a raise from the Button with K2 suited, and got called by a fish with stats VPIP 64% and PFR 20% from the Big Blind. On the flop K55 rainbow, we hit two pair, our opponent checks, and we need to choose the optimal line of play.
The WTSD (Went to Showdown) stat in the Hand2Note 4 HUD shows us that, up to this point, the player in the Big Blind reached showdown only in 21% of cases. It’s unlikely that such an opponent will pay us off with a worse hand three or even two bets. Moreover, in the range of such a loose player, there will be a lot of weak hands on such a flop that he will simply fold to our bet.
At the same time, the opponent has a very high WWSF (Won When Saw Flop) percentage, standing at 61%. This indicates that the player actively fights for pots and tends to show aggression. Based on this information, the best decision for us on the flop would be to check behind.
By checking, we can represent a weak hand and induce a bluff from our opponent on the turn and river with hands that can hardly beat us.
Taking a free card
Another edge of playing in position is that when your opponent checks, you can check back to take a free card and cheaply realize the full potential of your drawing hand.
This concept echoes with the pot control, with the only difference being that this time you’re checking without a made hand, and your goal is to complete your drawing combination without investing money into the pot. Let’s consider a suitable situation for this:
We opened on the Button with 75 suited and got a call from a tight regular player in the Big Blind. On the flop J84, two-toned, we hit a flush draw and a gutshot, and after our opponent checked, we made a continuation bet. The opponent called, and the turn brought a 9.
We need to make a decision: whether to fire a second barrel or to check and take a free card.
As usual, let’s first refer to our opponent's statistics:
The dynamic HUD in Hand2Note 4 shows us that after calling a continuation bet on the flop out of position, our opponent has faced a second barrel on the turn 6 times and has not yet folded once.
Moreover, the 9 on the turn interacts well with our opponent’s range, improving some of their hands to pairs + draws, two pairs, and straights. By firing a second barrel, we might not only face a check-call but also a check-raise, putting us in a very uncomfortable situation.
From these considerations, in such a situation, it’s better for us to refrain from firing a second barrel and instead take a free card in an attempt to complete our flush or straight for free.
Value betting with medium-strength hands
Holding a medium-strength hand in position you shouldn’t always play too cautiously. If you think that most of the time you currently have the best hand, and your opponent will often call with a worse hand, you should definitely make a value bet. In practice, it works as follows:
We made an open raise with QJ suited from the Cutoff and got a call from a fish with VPIP 61% and PFR 14% in the Big Blind. On the flop J82, two-toned, our opponent checked, and we made a continuation bet with the top pair and a good kicker.
The turn is a 9, which gives us a gutshot straight draw, but at the same time, it completes some straight and two-pair combinations that our opponent might have. The player in the Big Blind checks again, and we face a decision: whether to go for a second barrel or to check behind and play a small pot.
The situation is similar to the previous example, however, firstly, in this hand, we have a top pair and a gutshot on the turn, not a draw, and secondly, we are dealing with a completely different opponent in terms of style. Let’s examine their tendencies in the Hand2Note 4 popup:
We see that this player reaches showdown quite often, specifically in 38% of cases, but only wins at showdown with a frequency of 24%. This tells us that the opponent doesn’t like to fold and often calls with weak hands.
At the same time, the low aggression frequency on all streets indicates their passive playing style, and we shouldn’t fear check-raises with semi-bluffs from this opponent. A check-raise from such a passive player would indicate that we’re beat, and we can easily fold our pair.
The best decision against such an opponent would be to fire a second barrel, value betting all pairs weaker than ours and various draws that they won’t fold. Checking on the turn would be a mistake because we’d miss the opportunity to extract value from a large number of worse hands. Additionally, it would give the opponent a chance to outdraw us for free.
Bet vs missed c-bet
Many players overuse continuation bets on the flop out of position, making them not only with strong hands and bluffs but also with medium-strength hands. As a result, when they miss a continuation bet and check, there are too few hands in their range that are strong enough to resist aggression.
Thus, in such situations, a bluff bet is very profitable. Let’s confirm this in the reports.
Applying filters, I selected the situations where I called an open raise preflop when playing in position:
In the smart reports of Hand2Note 4, all the necessary information is always at your fingertips. When you click on the Bet Flop stat, a new report appears on the right, displaying the scenario where I made a bet into opponents after they missed a continuation bet.
In the “Faced Next” tab, we see that in this situation, opponents fold 61% of the time. This is too often, and in the long run, bluffing will be profitable.
Position gives you the opportunity to control the course of the hand, apply pressure on your opponent, and optimally utilize the potential of your hand.
With the statistics in Hand2Note 4, you can easily determine the playing style of your opponents, identify vulnerabilities in their game, and effectively leverage your positional advantage.
5 advantages of playing in position
One of the most important elements of poker strategy is position.
Having position in a hand provides you with a range of advantages and greatly simplifies the gameplay. By acting last on each street, you give your opponent less information than they give you, control the size of the pot, and have better maneuverability.
In this article, we will discuss 5 effective lines in position that you should definitely incorporate into your game to increase your winnings.
Table of Contents:
- Value betting with medium-strength hands
Bluff continuation bet
One of the simple and most frequently used poker moves is the continuation bet on the flop as a bluff.
In position, the continuation bet works more effectively because by betting, you apply more pressure on your opponent.
When you have positional advantage, your opponent must act first on each street. They don’t have the opportunity to outplay you on the turn by expecting you to show weakness and then attacking it. Consequently, if they haven’t connected with the flop, they’re left with no choice but to fold to your aggression.
Let’s consider how the positional factor influences the success of continuation betting on the flop in multi-player reports in Hand2Note 4. With this feature, you can identify trends among opponents who share a similar playing style and develop exploitative strategies against them.
For the report, I selected all the fishes with a VPIP stat of over 40%, each of whom has at least 100 hands in my database. Then, I filtered out the situations where they called an open raise preflop out of position:
As we can see, even stubborn opponents, like fishes, tend to fold to a continuation bet every other time when playing out of position.
In Hand2Note 4, you can compare reports side by side to track how different trends depend on various parameters. I pinned the obtained report, and then in a new report on the right, I changed the scenario, indicating that the fishes called the preflop raise in position:
We can notice that when playing in position, these players resist continuation bets more often, folding only in 40% of cases.
Therefore, when you’re in a hand with a fish, on the flop, you should bluff with a continuation bet more often when you have positional advantage, and conversely, use this tactic less frequently when you’re out of position.
Pot control
Position gives you the opportunity to control the size of the pot, allowing you to decide when to inflate it and when to keep it small.
If you have a medium-strength hand on the flop, and your opponent is unlikely to call three streets of bets with a weaker hand, you’re not interested in playing for a huge pot. Hence, on one of the streets, you’ll need to check back.
This kind of play can induce an aggressive opponent to bluff on the next streets, which you can easily call with your medium-strength hand.
Let’s consider an example:
We opened with a raise from the Button with K2 suited, and got called by a fish with stats VPIP 64% and PFR 20% from the Big Blind. On the flop K55 rainbow, we hit two pair, our opponent checks, and we need to choose the optimal line of play.
The WTSD (Went to Showdown) stat in the Hand2Note 4 HUD shows us that, up to this point, the player in the Big Blind reached showdown only in 21% of cases. It’s unlikely that such an opponent will pay us off with a worse hand three or even two bets. Moreover, in the range of such a loose player, there will be a lot of weak hands on such a flop that he will simply fold to our bet.
At the same time, the opponent has a very high WWSF (Won When Saw Flop) percentage, standing at 61%. This indicates that the player actively fights for pots and tends to show aggression. Based on this information, the best decision for us on the flop would be to check behind.
By checking, we can represent a weak hand and induce a bluff from our opponent on the turn and river with hands that can hardly beat us.
Taking a free card
Another edge of playing in position is that when your opponent checks, you can check back to take a free card and cheaply realize the full potential of your drawing hand.
This concept echoes with the pot control, with the only difference being that this time you’re checking without a made hand, and your goal is to complete your drawing combination without investing money into the pot. Let’s consider a suitable situation for this:
We opened on the Button with 75 suited and got a call from a tight regular player in the Big Blind. On the flop J84, two-toned, we hit a flush draw and a gutshot, and after our opponent checked, we made a continuation bet. The opponent called, and the turn brought a 9.
We need to make a decision: whether to fire a second barrel or to check and take a free card.
As usual, let’s first refer to our opponent's statistics:
The dynamic HUD in Hand2Note 4 shows us that after calling a continuation bet on the flop out of position, our opponent has faced a second barrel on the turn 6 times and has not yet folded once.
Moreover, the 9 on the turn interacts well with our opponent’s range, improving some of their hands to pairs + draws, two pairs, and straights. By firing a second barrel, we might not only face a check-call but also a check-raise, putting us in a very uncomfortable situation.
From these considerations, in such a situation, it’s better for us to refrain from firing a second barrel and instead take a free card in an attempt to complete our flush or straight for free.
Value betting with medium-strength hands
Holding a medium-strength hand in position you shouldn’t always play too cautiously. If you think that most of the time you currently have the best hand, and your opponent will often call with a worse hand, you should definitely make a value bet. In practice, it works as follows:
We made an open raise with QJ suited from the Cutoff and got a call from a fish with VPIP 61% and PFR 14% in the Big Blind. On the flop J82, two-toned, our opponent checked, and we made a continuation bet with the top pair and a good kicker.
The turn is a 9, which gives us a gutshot straight draw, but at the same time, it completes some straight and two-pair combinations that our opponent might have. The player in the Big Blind checks again, and we face a decision: whether to go for a second barrel or to check behind and play a small pot.
The situation is similar to the previous example, however, firstly, in this hand, we have a top pair and a gutshot on the turn, not a draw, and secondly, we are dealing with a completely different opponent in terms of style. Let’s examine their tendencies in the Hand2Note 4 popup:
We see that this player reaches showdown quite often, specifically in 38% of cases, but only wins at showdown with a frequency of 24%. This tells us that the opponent doesn’t like to fold and often calls with weak hands.
At the same time, the low aggression frequency on all streets indicates their passive playing style, and we shouldn’t fear check-raises with semi-bluffs from this opponent. A check-raise from such a passive player would indicate that we’re beat, and we can easily fold our pair.
The best decision against such an opponent would be to fire a second barrel, value betting all pairs weaker than ours and various draws that they won’t fold. Checking on the turn would be a mistake because we’d miss the opportunity to extract value from a large number of worse hands. Additionally, it would give the opponent a chance to outdraw us for free.
Bet vs missed c-bet
Many players overuse continuation bets on the flop out of position, making them not only with strong hands and bluffs but also with medium-strength hands. As a result, when they miss a continuation bet and check, there are too few hands in their range that are strong enough to resist aggression.
Thus, in such situations, a bluff bet is very profitable. Let’s confirm this in the reports.
Applying filters, I selected the situations where I called an open raise preflop when playing in position:
In the smart reports of Hand2Note 4, all the necessary information is always at your fingertips. When you click on the Bet Flop stat, a new report appears on the right, displaying the scenario where I made a bet into opponents after they missed a continuation bet.
In the “Faced Next” tab, we see that in this situation, opponents fold 61% of the time. This is too often, and in the long run, bluffing will be profitable.
Position gives you the opportunity to control the course of the hand, apply pressure on your opponent, and optimally utilize the potential of your hand.
With the statistics in Hand2Note 4, you can easily determine the playing style of your opponents, identify vulnerabilities in their game, and effectively leverage your positional advantage.
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