Position is known to be the most important concept in texas holdem, at least in no-limit holdem. Position only refers to where you are sitting at the table in relation to the dealer. Your strength in position comes from the fact that play and betting goes clockwise. The later in position you are, the more you get to see the reactions of players to their cards and if they fold, call, or raise. We will look at early, middle, and late positions.

Early Position
In a 8-10 man table, early position consists of the blinds and the 2 players after the blinds. You want to play very little hands from early position. You must only play with extremely good cards from this position. If you are going to decide to play your cards, you must come in with a raise to let everyone know that you have a great hand. DO NOT slow play your big cards from early position. There are many disadvantages in this position. You do not know what other players will do, and are first to act in each round after the flop. The only advantage of being in early position is being in the blinds and being able to act last preflop. You may be able to force someone out if the pot was not raised. Only do this if you have good cards, very few are in the pot, NO ONE has raised, and you have found the remaining players are likely to fold to a high raise. When there are less players at the table, you can play a few more starting hands. If you see someone playing from early position, you should put them on great cards.

Middle Position
From mid position, or fifth through seventh, you have some information to use. If the early position players have folded, you can raise with middle position cards. If one of these players have raised, hands like K-J may not be so strong anymore. You must have a better hand to call with then to bet with. You can re-raise only with cards that you would play with from early position like the high pairs and high suited cards. You should only fold or raise from this position. Under special situations you will only call. When there are less players at the table, you can raise with smaller hands.

Late Position
In late position, you are the dealer or what is known as the “button”, or your right before that player. You have had the ability to gather so much information in seeing what everyone has done. You can see if someone has raised then re-raised. Here you would fold everything but the absolute best like AA KK QQ AK suited. This position also gives you the ability to raise with cards that you woudlnt normally play with. If the pot has not been raised, you can raise with decent cards and be able to act last after the flop. You can also consider this, if everyone folds to you in late position and you do not have great cards, it is very possible that the blinds that you did not get information from are holding great cards. Just remember when you enter the pot, you will be able to gather all the information from everyone again. This position should be the only position you try to bluff from.