Relationship Between Texas Holdem Poker Position and Hands

Today's discussion will focus on the concept of Texas Holdem poker hands, the underlying concepts, and lines of action regarding your poker position. It will also include examples and situations for everyone to contemplate how they would act.

How to Play Poker: Understanding Poker Position

Firstly, players need to understand that the key to a poker strategy revolves around information. People make decisions based on the information available to them, and the more information one has, the more precise the decision-making becomes.

For example, "What should I eat tonight?" is a broad question with countless possible answers.

The subsequent question we might ask usually narrows down the options, such as "Chinese or Western cuisine." If lunch was a burger, then for dinner, we might opt for a change and choose Chinese, narrowing the range.

However, within Chinese cuisine, there are still various options. We continue to narrow down by considering distance, like whether it's closer to home or farther away.

If we choose a closer option, the range becomes smaller, and we might end up with a few nearby Chinese eateries, eventually selecting what to eat from their menus.

Applying this example to understanding the poker position a player is in, an early position faces a situation similar to the first question: "What do I want to eat?" They are up against all the players in later positions, any of whom might choose to engage in the game.

Consequently, in this scenario, selecting starting hands with a higher win rate and raising to isolate opponents can effectively narrow down the field, prompting later-position players to fold their lower-win-rate hands or pay a higher amount to participate.

On the other hand, a player in a later position, knowing that a player in an earlier position has raised, can understand that the early position player likely has a stronger hand.

As a result, the later-position player might be more willing to increase the pot, thereby narrowing down the range of the earlier-position player.

After learning this information, the later-position player could choose to participate with hands that have higher connectivity because if the community cards are not related to the initially strong hands, they might align more with the range of hands the later-position player holds.

In such a scenario, actions after the community cards are revealed, such as bluffing or value betting, can better achieve their intended objectives.

Extension of Poker Position

Some players might believe that being in an early position is generally a disadvantage, especially in live poker games where hand ranges are relatively tight due to the limited information available. In theory, this statement holds some truth, but because players possess varying stack sizes at the table, this implies that concealed odds might not always favor later-position players' use of speculative hands to engage in the game.

For instance, at a table with blinds at 10/20, a player in UTG+1 with a stack of 2000 opens to 80. Subsequent players fold, reaching the button with a hand like 10/J of different suits. Because there are still the small and big blinds yet to act, if the button player chooses to just call, and later faces a raise from the blinds, they'd be up against two players holding relatively high-quality hands. Moreover, if the button player calls and the blinds fold, the post-flop winning odds would be based on the following table:

Hand Card	Example	Win Rate
2 High Card vs 2 Low Card	AQ : JT	66:34
High+Low Card	AJ : KT	59:41
High+Low vs Medium Connector	A8 : KQ	54:46
Big Pair vs 2 Low Card	QQ : 72	83:17
Small Pair vs 2 High Card	66 : KJ	51:49
Medium Pair vs High Low	TT : A7	67:32
High Pair vs Small Pair	AA : 44	81:19

The win rate against two higher cards is only 34%, which means that after calling, the button player would need to gain a value of more than 156 units to have a positive expected value.

Moreover, when community cards are related to higher cards or middle pairs, the win rate for a player holding 10/J becomes relatively low. Specifically, in situations where both opponents might have a pair, their two higher cards are dominant over our hand of 10/J.

In this scenario, the suggested poker strategy would lean toward recommending raising or folding rather than simply calling.

Key Points: Poker Hands and Poker Position

The above is the first piece analyzing poker positions and hand ranges, and it's the first time using examples to discuss with players. The current lines of action are relatively basic.

Subsequent discussions will involve the balance between actions and various hand types. The foundation of these actions, as mentioned in this piece, also relates to concealed odds. Detailed information on concealed odds will be presented in the next chapter of strategies for live poker games. Until next time!