Alabama Gambling Forum - Poker, Pari-mutuel facilities, Casinos

easyguy · Joined: 06 Jan 2006 Posts: 9

I have a question about position. It is assumed you can play wotrse starting hands in late position and this makes little sense to me. Being in late position surely is an advantage, no question, but if everyone calls before the flop, or at least a few do ( or even rasie ) can you really say that you would stay in with not so great cards. Maybe I misunderstood the rule but I can't see why a bad hand is playable in late position, I hope someone can clarify this

quickie · Joined: 22 Jan 2006 Posts: 11

I'm not really sure if I understand your question fully but I will attempt to clear up your position question as it realates to your starting cards.

When your in EP your putting chips into a pot pre-flop with lots of possible action to come behind you so you only want to enter with hands that can with stand having to call a raise.

In LP you have already witnessed the majority of the action and know if everyone has only limped in vs. a raised pot. Your starting hands should vary with the number of players already in the pot, the size of the pot, and many other variables associated with your position.

IE. Your in EP and have A8s and you limp in hoping for a flush, the flop brings your Ace but your kicker is very weak and your don't have a shot at the flush - what to do...your probably going to check and fold. Now if you have the same situation and your in LP and the flop is checked to you, you can probably bet b/c you would of expected a stronger Ace to have already bet at the pot.

So in general the later your position the more hands you can play (I hesitate to say worse hands, b/c any hand that wins is not a worse hand then any other.) You can play more hands b/c you know more information about the pot and the players in the hand then you do if you put your chips on the line in EP without any knowledge about what is going to happen to the pot after you.

razor · Joined: 21 Dec 2005 Posts: 26

In many situations, you can win with just position. Let's say the board comes Ks 4s 6d and 3 opponents check to you. Does it really matter what your hand is? The only thing that matters is if you think your opponents will fold more than one time in five. If you have outs, they can fold less than one in five and you still profit depending on your outs.

Plus the position raises sometimes steal the whole pot for the same price as calling down.

ballen · Joined: 31 Dec 2005 Posts: 27

Pot odds go along with position as well. Going back to the A8s example. Let's say you limp in with that hand in EP. Now everyone folds behind you except the BB, he calls. Chances are you may be beat right there. You probably won't make your flush, and the pot is not giving you correct action to play because there are so few players. Pot odds are the ratio of the #of bets in the pot to the #bets you have to call. In the above example, you called one bet, and the blinds are one and a half bets, so you are getting 1.5:1 pot odds for a drawing hand, since with a low kicker, the nut flush is what you really want with that hand.

On the other hand, if you were on the button with that hand and 5 people had already called, you would now be getting 6.5:1 pot odds for calling. This is a much better situation. If there are a number of callers ahead of you, late position can give you correct pot odds to play a more speculative hand than in early position.