ONLINE POKER TOP10 Beginner’s Tips No Limit Holdem - Part III- Game Selection and Position

Now that you have found a table and bought in with 20 Big Blinds, when you are dealt in, you have to decide - should you play the hand or not? Now we will discuss Short Stack Strategy and what hands to play in what positions.

The two key elements needed for the Short Stack Strategy to work are hand selection and position. These two vital principles work together, if you fail to make the right decision in one or both, you will fail. To be a winning poker player you should play very few hands, only playing strong hands and when you do play a hand, you always raise and never just call. For this hand selection strategy to work, you must understand position and only play when you are in a favorable position.

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 you. Therefore, the earlier your position is, the better your hand has to be for you to play it.

Fewer players at the table means there are fewer positions. In less than full tables, the early positions are eliminated first, then the middle and late. If there are only nine players at the table, one early position is no longer counted, if there are only eight players, two early positions are eliminated and only one early position remains. At a table with seven players or less, there are no early positions.  When playing by the Short Stack Strategy rules, you will never play at a table with less than seven opponents, if the table you are playing at falls below this number of players, leave the table and find one that has at least seven players.

Positions at the table start from the dealer and continue counter-clockwise. 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 Small Blind or second to the left of the dealer). After the flop, these two players are in the earliest positions.

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.