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Early Position

Holdem is a positional game, perhaps more so than any other form of online poker. This is because the button determines the order in which players act for all betting rounds.

(The only exceptions to this are the blinds, who act last on the first betting round, but act f irst on all succeeding betting rounds.)

Consequently, the number of hands that can be safely played from an early position – which we will define as the first three positions to the left of the big blind in a ten-handed game is quite limited.

Since you are out of position on all betting rounds, you need a superior starting hand to make it worth playing.
(*A fuller treatment of the importance of position can be found in both Holdem Poker and The Theory of Poker by David sklansky.)

Specifically, in early position in a typical Holdem game, if you are the first one in, or if there is only a call to your right, be prepared to play only those hands in the first four groups. In a loose game, as long as the players are not aggressive, you can add the Group 5 hands, especially the suited connectors.

In a tough game, it is probably best to discard even the Group 4 hands. These guidelines are very important. Playing too many hands up front is one of the most costly errors that you can make.

Even though we just said that you can play the Group 5 hands in non-aggressive loose games, notice that we said “especially the suited connectors.” The game would have to be almost perfect for hands like to be playable in an early position.

Furthermore, are the game gets more aggressive, you should discard some of the weaker Group 4 hands such as AJ and KTs. These can be difficult poker hands to play out of position, especially if you find yourself isolated by an aggressive player.

When we refer to a game as loose, we mean a game without much before-the-flop raising and with many players in most pots. (This game would actually be loose and passive.)

When we say tough, we mean a game with a fair amount of raising, but not many large multiway pots. (This game would actually be tight and aggressive.)

There’s also a type of game where several players play very well, but only once the flop comes. If you are not sure which of these types you are playing, it is best to assume that the game is typical until you can determine otherwise.

Remember that big pots do not necessarily sound raising, you best strategy might be to look for a softer game. We also want to point out that loose and passive are not the same thing.

If a game is loose, but still very aggressive, you should not be in many pots. On the other hand, you could play a fair number of hands in a tight but passive poker game.

Put another way, passive/aggressive should have a major impact on the number of hands that you play, while loose/tight should impact the mix of hands that you play. There will be more discussion of this throughout the text.

Sometimes you will need to add a few hands to those you play up front to throw your opponents off. For example, you occasionally should play a hand like in an early position, even if the game is tough, to stop your more observant opponents from stealing against you when “rags” flop.

Also, this is a good hand to occasionally raise with if you feel that your early position raises are getting too much respect. (That is you are not getting any action.) However, no matter what the reason for playing a hand like this, make sure that your hand is suited, and only do this occasionally.

If there is a raise to your right and the game is typical or tough, you should limit your play to those hands in Groups 1 and 2. When the Pots get big.

Against an extremely tight player in a tough poker game, it may be correct to throw away some of the Group 2 hands, such as:(Remember that this chapter refers to early-position poker decision.)