Position at the table

Chapter 2 contained a sentence that is easily skipped: the button decides who acts when. This chapter takes it apart — because who acts when is the one thing at a poker table you cannot choose and that still decides almost everything.

Why the order changes everything

Picture two players with the same hand. One has to act first and knows nothing. The other sees beforehand what everyone else does — who folds, who calls, who raises.

The second has more information for the same decision. Nothing more. And that is enough: in poker, position is worth gold, because it costs nothing and works in every single hand.

The eight seats and their names

At an eight-handed table every seat has a name. They appear on every seat box — in the Daily Quiz, in a duel and in every trainer, with exactly these abbreviations:

1. UTG — under the gun, directly left of the big blind. Acts first before the flop and knows the least.
2. EP — early position, the seat after that. Also early, also blind.
3. MP1 — middle position. The middle, literally.
4. MP2 — the second middle.
5. HJ — hijack. From here on it gets late, and with that comfortable.
6. BU — the button. The best seat at the table.
7. SB — small blind. Pays up front and acts first after the flop.
8. BB — big blind. Pays the most up front, has the last word before the flop.

Early, late, and what lies between

Early means UTG through MP1: you decide before six others have spoken. What you play here has to be strong enough to survive six answers.

Late means HJ and BU: you see first what everyone wants. That is why you can go along with more hands from here — not because the cards are better, but because you know more.

The blinds are a case of their own. They have the last word before the flop and the first one after — the worst trade at the table, and they have already paid for it.

Two orders, not one

This is where it trips people up most often: the order reverses after the flop.

• Before the flop it starts at UTG and ends at the BB — the blinds already have money in, so they come last.
• After the flop it starts at the SB and ends at the BU — nobody pays up front any more, and the button has the last word in every further round.

That is why the button is the best seat: in three of four betting rounds it speaks last.

Exercise: tapping on the table

Six questions, one answer each — tap the seat you mean. After every guess the right seat lights up, and a sentence says why.

Your six chapters

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