Odds & Positioning: Not Talking About Sex

Being in late position with a good hand has major strengths over being early with a good hand. Early position raisers are assumed to have a good hand and it tends to scare players away. Early pre-flop raises can force the other players to call two bets at once (or more in the case of pot limit or no limit hold’em) when there is nearly nothing in the pot worth fighting for. In late position, there may be players who have already called one bet. Those online poker players only have to call one bet (in limit) with a little something already in the pot. Players in late position with a good hand have the ability to manipulate the pot size, which will make future bets easier to call in the upcoming betting rounds.

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Your position: People in late position have the ability to influence the size of the pot much more than those in early position. The important factor is that position goes hand in hand with studying the players directly around you. For example, an aggressive, blind-stealing player to the immediate right of a tight player usually results in the tight player’s blinds getting stolen.

Pot odds are as easy as computing outs. You compare your outs or your chance of winning to pot size. If your chance of winning is significantly better than the ratio of the pot size to a bet, then you have good pot odds. If it’s lower, then you have bad pot odds.

Knowing when to raise, which hands to start with and which hands to stay with is something only you can learn with time. The trick to starting out is to not underestimate your hands. Simply start betting, raising and check-raising more, even occasionally when you have nothing. Don’t take it too far, especially when you’re just starting out, but take yourself out of your comfort zone – you might be surprised at how much fun you have learning and with how fast you will learn.