Having position on someone means that you act after them.

You have probably heard terms like Early Position, Middle Position, Button, Under-the-gun (UTG) etc.
Early Position means that you are sitting close to the blinds and will act early in the hand, especially preflop, when the blinds are acting last.

The benefit with having position on someone is that they will act before you, so when it is your turn you will have gained information. And information is money in poker.

Preflop

If you are first to act at a Full Ring table you will have 8 or 9 people to act after you. It is natural that you need a very strong hand to be able to open the pot. To understand this fully let’s imagine you open the top-10 % best hands. If you do that it is more than 50 % likely that one of the following players will have a better hand, if you open with the worst hand in your range (1 – 0,1 to the power of 8 => 60 % chance). In other words, if you open with a 10 % range UTG at a Full Ring table you are not a favorite to have the best hand. Furthermore, it is also likely that someone with a stronger hand will get involved AND have position on you throughout the hand.

On the other hand, if you are on the Button and open with a 30 % range there will only be two players left to act and the chance that you have the best hand is almost 50 % (1 – 0,7*0,7). AND you know you will have position throughout the hand.

These are the reasons why poker players play very few hands from Early positions and a lot more from Late position (not as extreme when the game is shorthanded).

Think about this the next time you consider opening a decent, but not great hand UTG in a Full Ring game next time. Even if you believe you have a skill advantage over your opponents (make sure you have enough games at the level under your belt to be sure of this) you might well be playing a hand with a card disadvantage and a positional disadvantage. Have a clear reason for playing the hand if you do, for example that table is folding much too often, or for deception (occasionally) or since you are much stronger than the opponents. Otherwise fold!

An example of the value of position preflop is you hold a fairly strong hand in late position. A TAG (Tight-Agressive) UTG open raises and a TAG Middle Position reraises significantly. Now you can throw away a pair of 8’s in late position without having invested a single bet. On the other hand, if you had been UTG you would have open raised with this hand – without any information about how your opponents like their hands.

Postflop

The difference between acting before or after you opponent can often mean as much as saving a bet when you have the worst hand and winning an extra bet when you have the better hand. This may not sound like much, but it is. Sometimes the last bet is on the river, in a big pot.

However, a lot of the content applies in Tournaments and Sit and Go’s as well.

In general you can play the same way in the early stages of a Tournament as you do in a Cash game with the following considerations:

• If you have a skill advantage you want to avoid marginal all-ins, but you also want to play many hands (can sometimes be conflicting goals if opponents are aggressive)
• You might want to project a tight and conservative image early on to be able to get away with more when the blinds increase

Some people say you should take every chance to collect money at early stages, because otherwise you will have too small chance to win. This is not true. With a correct strategy for opening up your game when the blinds increase you will still have good chances of winning.  If skill advantage is ignored optimal strategy in a tournament is identical to a cash game when far from the money.

In a Sit and Go you need to play a little bit tighter. The reason for this is that the so called Bubble effect is noticeable from the very start of a Sit and Go (it is normally negligible in a large MTT (Multi Table Tournament).

The Bubble is what it is called when the tournament is at a stage so that it is getting close to the money payouts.  Usually many (inexperienced players) tighten up a lot at this stage because they really want something to show for their efforts. This can be taken advantage of by skilled opponents by raising with more hands and increased aggression. Due to something called Bubble Factor correct strategy is in general to raise when first in with more hands, but avoid confrontations more than normally (call or reraise with fewer hands).

The Bubble Factor helps you decide exactly how to play an optimal strategy at any time in a Tournament or a Sit and Go. The basis for this is something called the ICM (Independent Chip Model). The ICM is a way to convert tournament chips into real money. This is somewhat complicated (but very important). The more chips a player has, the less each chip is worth. Doubling the amount of chips does not double the dollar expected value ($EV).

The optimal strategy is fairly complex and depends on payout structure and stacksizes etc so for a full understanding of this part of tournaments and sit and go’s I recommend specialized sites and the following sources:

ICM

Introduction to ICM

Free ICM calculator

If you are playing Sit and Go’s and take it seriously I strongly recommend getting the Sit & Go Wizard. It is both an ICM calculator, but more importantly, you can practice with it to play a close to perfect end-game in Sit & Go’s. Try it for free for 30 days and make up your mind late.

Bubble Factor
Kill Everyone: Advanced Strategies for No-Limit Hold ‘Em Poker, Tournaments, and Sit-n-Gos

Tournaments
Harrington on Hold ‘em Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments, Vol. 1: Strategic Play
Harrington on Hold ‘em Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments, Vol. 2: Endgame

Sit and Go’s
Sit ‘n Go Strategy

You want to do this to maximize your earnings from their mistakes and minimize your own mistakes that they can take advantage of.

If you have information that will  help you predict how your opponents are going to react you should use this to your advantage.

Adjusting opening ranges to table average

In general, if a table is playing tighter than normal, you should play looser. If a table is playing looser than normal you should play tighter. You get a fairly good idea for what average play is by the Preflop Strategy. This is pretty average except on Microstakes which are much looser most of the time.

On top of this you might play looser than normal if you have a high skill edge against your competitors and you might play tighter than normal if your opponents are more skilled than you (but normally select a different table).

Many poker players are overdoing these adjustments. Be careful when you stray from the default strategy since it can make you very exploitable when someone notices this. If there isn’t a huge skill difference or if you are not very sure of what you are doing you should only make small adjustments, for example:

• If table is very tight play 25 % more hands from all positions.
• If table is very loose play 25 % fewer hands from all positions.

This may be a reasonable starting point at a cash game table. However, in a tournament people can sometimes become so tight when it is getting close to the money so you can play more or less every hand. These situations will mostly require experience, feel for the table dynamics and knowledge about the bubble factors and how that influences the game.

Adjusting to the game flow

If someone has 3-bet you four times in the last 20 minutes you will be tempted to fight back next time, right? This goes for most people.

Exactly how to adjust to game flow, table dynamics, mental game etc is something that mainly must be learned with experience. One thing to consider though, is that many people are overadjusting and doing it too quickly.

For example, if you are 3-bet twice in a row by an average player who has 3-bet of 5% over several thousand hands and if you have an average image both at the table and over long run at the site. Should you automatically assume that he is full of it and assign him a range of 15%? Or is it more likely that he happened to get good hands twice in a row? Most of the time it is actually the latter. And it can be a more costly mistake to 4-bet light in the wrong situation than to fold a marginal hand.

So general advice is:

• If your image is normal, assume that opponents are playing their normal game until something has deviated more than 3 times

For example, if someone with a normal image has 3-bet you 3 times, you should still assume he is playing his normal game (unless you have other reasons to think he is out of line). However, the fourth time he does it in a short period of time you can start assigning him a wider range than normal.

But be careful how far you take your adjustments also. Most players don’t start playing completely differently all of a sudden (unless they are drunk or on tilt). And, when someone knows he has been overdoing something, he may well have decided to shift gears, by the time you start adjusting.

This goes both ways of course, pay attention to how your opponents are likely to perceive you. And if you have done something 3 times in a short time span you might consider changing gears if your opponent is likely to catch up on this and do something about it.

Adjusting to the blinds

If you are playing multiple tables of cash games online at low stakes or higher, you usually don’t have to adjust too much to the tables. Most tables will have some decent opponents so the table average will not be that far from normal most of the time. And when it is, it will most of the time only be for a short period.

Here is a guideline to help you get started. As usual it is important to not overdo it.

Small blind

• If  big blind fold-to-steal < 70% or raise-steal-attempt > 10% decrease opening range to 30 %.
• If big blind has a fold-to steal of > 90 % increase opening range to 50 %.

You should also keep an eye on if the big blind loves to squeeze or raise limpers and tighten up limps and cold-calls if he does. If he overdo it a lot it is an opportunity to trap with premium hands.

Button

• If either of the blinds fold-to-steal < 70% or raise-steal-attempt > 10% decrease opening range to 30 %.
• If either of the blinds have a fold-to-steal between 70- 80 % use normal opening range.
• If both blinds have fold-to-steal between 80-90 % increase opening range to 40 %.
• If big blind has a fold-to steal of > 90 % increase opening range to 50 %.

You should also keep an eye on blinds who loves to squeeze or raise limpers and tighten up limps and cold-calls if they do. If they overdo it a lot it is an opportunity to trap with premium hands.

Cut-off

• If either of the blinds fold-to-steal < 70% or raise-steal-attempt > 10%  or button 3-bets > 10% or cold-call > 10% decrease opening range to 20 %.
• If both of the blinds have a fold-to-steal between 70- 80 % use normal opening range.
• If both blinds have fold-to-steal between 80-90 % increase opening range to 30 %.
• If big blind has a fold-to steal of > 90 % increase opening range to 35 %.

You should also keep an eye on blinds and button who loves to squeeze or raise limpers and tighten up limps and cold-calls if they do. If they overdo it a lot it is an opportunity to trap with premium hands.

Why adjusting in steal position is important

Some people think that it is not worth putting much attention to blind stealing since the blinds are so small. Just use the default opening range and everything will be fine. But that will be a big opportunity lost. Consider this:

A really good winrate is 2 BB / 100 Hands (BB is Big Bets).

That’s 0,02 BB / Hand = 0,04 Big Blinds / Hand

You are on the button or the cut-off 2/6 of the time if you play 6-Max. If you are a zero-sum player, you can reach a 2 BB / 100 level just by increasing your winrate at the button and cut-off by 0,12 Big Blinds / Hand.

Let’s imagine you are always raising 20 % of your hands from the  cut-off and 30 % of your hands from the button no matter who plays the button and the blinds. Let’s also imagine you play with buttons and blinds that are folding too much 25 % of the time. You can increase your winrate to 0,12 Big Blinds / Hand in total average if you can steal successfully 30 % extra the times when you have weak opponents. This is just a complicated way of saying that adjusting your opening ranges on the cut-off and the button can have a significant  impact on your winrate!

The following is based on quite extensive research on various resources online including among others these:

• Pokertableratings for Cash games
• Officialpokerrankings for MTT’s (Multitable Tournaments)
• Sharkscope for Sit and Go’s

What I say here does not apply for microstakes. You can achieve significantly higher win rates there.

It does not apply to live games either. Hopefully variance is a lot lower in live games since you can read your opponents body language and manipulate them. It is also common that the skill difference is much higher than online.

Cash games: Above 2 BB / 100 is great and above 3 BB / 100 is world class.

BB / 100 is an historical way of measuring win rate in cash games. It comes from Pokertracker and the big bet in limit games. 1 BB = 2 big blinds.

Multi-table tournaments: Above 20 % ROI is great and above 30 % is world class.

ROI means Return on Investment. If you for example buy-in in a tournament and you have an average ROI at 20 % that means in average you win $20 each time you play that tournament.

Sit and Go’s: Above 5 % ROI is great and above 10 % is world class. Even at higher stakes it is basically impossible to earn > $10 / Sit and Go.

If you have higher rates than this you are probably running hot.

Many people underestimate how much you need to play to have a reasonably accurate understanding of your winrate. And there are many opinions – which is understandable because it varies with competition, style of play etc.

Personally I go by this guideline which I think makes sense:

Cash games: 30 000 hands to see if you are a winner. 100 000 hands to have an idea on win rate.

Tournaments: 500 tournaments to see if you are a winner. 1500 tournaments to have an idea on win rate.

Sit and Go’s: 500 Sit and  Go’s to see if you are a winner. 1500 Sit and Go’s to have an idea on win rate.

I know, this sucks. Hate variance! When I realized this I strongly considered giving up poker. But still if you look at the graphs on the really good players who play a lot, they are consistently pointing in the right direction.

But if consistently winning money is an important concern in your poker game you have to accept these facts. Focus on the process of playing good poker. Make sure you do play good poker by analyzing your hands. Do not focus on the short-term results. You must learn to enjoy poker from the playing and not connect satisfaction to short-term winnings.

Some things to think about regarding variance:

• It takes a huge amount of time for the fish to realize they are not the shark – and that’s a great thing!
• It helps you cope with the down-swings. They are after all very natural, even for the best players in the world.
• Variance can go either way,  it can make a big plus also!
• If you are a winning player, most of the time you will go plus. Maybe it is 90% likely you will be up after each 30 000 hands if you are a +2 BB / 100 player.
• If you play 4 tables of 6-max it will take less than 100 hours to reach 30 000 hands. That’s not too bad.
  

To find the right spots and the right opponents is an art that usually takes many years of practice. A few guidelines on bluffing in general might be a starting point.

Since when you are on the river there are no more cards to come and you usually have a good idea if you have a  hand that it is worse than your opponents. So it is easier to see whether betting is for value or a bluff.

So let’s imagine a scenario where you are almost certain your hand is weaker than your opponents. The only way to win the pot is by bluffing.

Now the essential skill is to determine if you should bluff – and if you do how much you should bet.

The more you bet the more likely opponent is to fold (usually). So before you decide to bluff on the river you need to estimate your chance at success. But the more you bet, the higher the risk.

If you bet the pot you need at least 50 % of success for a bluff to be profitable (1:1 odds). If you bet half the pot you need at least 33 % chance of success to be profitable (2:1 odds). If you overbet the pot you need to be successful a majority of the time.

Think about the likely hand range of your opponent. Think about which hands in this range he will likely fold if you bet considering what you are representing and how well that matches your likely hand ranges and the story. And try to estimate how large part of his hand range that he is likely to fold.

The easiest way to get the thought process started is by considering a pot sized bet. Will it succeed at least half the time? If you don’t think it will you should probably not make the bluff unless the circumstances are special (for example an opponent who always fold to an all-in if he doesn’t have the nuts). If you think it will you can adjust the actual bet to a suitable size depending on the situation and the opponent.

On this site there are specialized articles on the most important bluff situations:

• 3-Betting
• 4-Betting
• Continuation betting
• Floating
• Bluffing on the river

Bluffing is a complex topic and very situation specific. But some general things to think about when you are considering making a bluff are:

• How many opponents do you have? The more opponents the less likely a bluff is to be successful. Let’s say each opponent is 50 % likely to see through a bluff you make with complete air and call. With one opponent you are 50 % likely to be called, with two 75 % likely to be called (1 – 0,5*0,5) and with 3 opponents you are 88 % likely to be called (1 – 0,5*0,5*0,5).
• How is your opponent(s) playing? Will they be capable enough to understand that the hands you are trying to represent are a significant part of your range? Or will they only look on their own cards and decide that a good pair is always good for calling?
• Tell a believable story. Don’t just throw out a bluff on the river without carefully considering how believable it is that you have what you are representing.
• In general when there comes a card that is a good fit to your likely hand range, but a bad fit to your opponent’s likely hand range you have at least one good condition for a bluff.
• Will your bluff make stronger hands fold? If it only makes weaker hands fold, should you really be making it? You might argue that it is the only way to win the pot with a weak hand against a super aggressive player who you know will most likely bet if you check – but under most circumstance it is better to wait until you have a hand and let him bet into you then.
• Prepare the ground for the bluffs. For example, it is much more likely that a flop bluff will succeed if you 3-bet preflop than if you cold called.
• In general you prefer to have some equity in the hand when you bluff, for example two overcards with a backdoor flush draw or a gutshot. This is called semi-bluffing, because you don’t expect to have the strongest hand right now, but it can improve to become the strongest hand. This adds more ways to win then an immediate fold.
• It is preferable to have position on your opponent(s). You get to see their actions first and they are more likely to fold when they are out of position.

Some players have complicated rules for how they chose a seat with different rules for maniacs, LAGs, TAGs, shortstacks etc.

Personally I only have one guiding principle.

Sit with position on the players you will profit most from.

Or in other words, sit to the left of the fish. When doing your table selection you have identified your target fish, when selecting a seat you choose the position that gives you the best possibility to earn as much as possible from the fish.

There are many alternatives to choose from but I believe these are the main alternatives:

• Pokertracker’s Table Tracker
• Holdem Manager’s Table Scanner
• PokerTableRating Premium Table Finder (not allowed by most poker rooms)
• Beta: TableScan Turbo

It seems that all four has what is needed to make good table selection. So it is probably natural to choose the one connected to the tracker you are using. If you have Pokertracker (although the monthly fee may make you look for alternatives) or Holdem Manager and otherwise take a look at PokerTableRatings.

I am trying out TableScan Turbo right now and it seems to be good. First I couldn’t get it started though, so I am not entirely convinced yet.

Personally I use Table Tracker (screenshot above) which is mostly satisfying my needs. I use a customized scoring system where I give points at a Full Ring table:

• 5 points if VPIP > 30
• 3 points if VPIP > 25
• 1 point if AF < 1,5
• 1 point if AF > 4

On top of this I hide tables with too many short stackers and I color code tables with at least 2 players playing 1 or 2  tables.

The good thing with Table Selection Software is that they allow you to customize your scoring. Some players play better against certain types of players than others do – so you should put some thought into what works best for you.

An issue with the whole Table Selection business is that you need to play a lot to have enough hand histories to find the fish in a good way. Or datamine or buy hand histories – but this is not allowed by most poker rooms.

If you have a lot of hands in your database but still frequently find that you have 50 hands or less on a lot of players an alternative strategy might be to choose tables with several opponents you don’t have stats on.