ONLINE POKER TOP10 Beginner’s Tips Fixed Limit Holdem – Part I - Position

Position

Welcome to the ONLINE POKER Top 10 beginners course for strategy for Fixed Limit Texas Hold'em. Our basic but comprehensive Holdem tips will help you on your way to earning money while having fun playing Holdem poker online.

Even if you aren't aspiring to be a professional player and prefer to play poker for fun as a hobby, our articles on Texas Holdem will show you how to win at the poker table. And winning will keep you in the game and guarantee you many years of enjoyment playing the great game of Texas Holdem poker.

We will start with strategy for the first betting round. You have logged into your online poker account, taken a seat in a game and are dealt your two hole cards. Now you have to make the decision of whether to play or fold. Unless you have a ‘premium’ hand which is discussed later, your position at the table is of the utmost importance when choosing which hands to play.

The position you are in at the poker table is defined by how many players are in the hand that will act after you. This is very important because the more players that act after you, the better the chances are that one of them has a better hand than you and will raise. Therefore, the earlier your position is, the better your hand has to be for you to play it.

Positions at the table start from the dealer and continue counter-clockwise, so to determine your position, count the seats between you and the dealer. There are four groups of player positions as follows:

The two (2) late positions are the dealer himself and the player to his right.
The three (3) middle positions are the 2nd, 3rd and 4th players to the right of the dealer.
The three (3) early positions are the three players in front of the Big blind.
The two players who pay the blinds are called the Small Blind (the player directly to the left of the dealer) and the Big Blind (the player to the left of the Small Blind or second to the left of the dealer). After the flop, these two blind players are in the earliest positions.

After determining your position

After determining your position, the next question is whether your hand is worth playing in your position. The worthiness of your hand is based not only on what two cards you hold, but your position and what the other players have done who acted before you.

We will start with the best or premium starting hands which are: A-A, K-K, Q-Q and A-K.
When holding these cards, you should raise or re-raise in any position, no matter what the other players have done.

The next highest group of strong hands are: J-J, T-T (10-10), 9-9, A-Q and A-Js (suited).
When you hold any of these hands, you should raise unless one player raises and at least one other player calls. If this happens, you should call unless you are in early position in which case you should fold.

Medium hands

Medium hands are: A-Jos (off suit), A-T and K-Q.
These hands should all be folded in early position and raised from all other positions.
The exceptions are: When one player has raised – fold unless you have the BB and all other players fold, then you should call. If you have K-Qs (suited) and one player raises and there is only one caller, you should call from any position.

Next are the speculative hands which are: pocket pairs of 8-8 to 2-2, K-Js, K-Ts, Q-Js, Q-Ts, J-Ts and T-9s.
If you hold these hands in early position – fold.
If you have the SB or BB and all other players fold, you should raise.
When you are in late position, call unless there has been a raise and all other players have folded, in this case you should fold.

The last group of hands are Mixed hands: K-Jos, K-Tos, Q-Jos, Q-Tos, J-Tos, K-9s, 8-7s, 9-8s and A-2s to A-9s.
From all early and middle positions, these hands should be folded.
From late to Blind positions, if all other players fold – raise.
In the SB if one player calls, you should raise, if you have the BB you should check.
If two or more players call, you should call in late position and in the SB, and check in the BB.

Summary

In summary, depending on your position and starting cards:
If you have a “premium hand” you raise in all instances.
If you have a “strong hand” and there is more than one raise behind you – call. All other hands you should fold unless you are in a blind position as explained above.