Table Position & Starting Hands

Most times people feel that playing at a shorter table means that you can play a wider range of hands. This is true and in fact, it is very important as the blinds come around more. You simply can not wait for the monster hands to come. However, people tend to abuse this concept and misjudge where they are at after the flop. They just “overvalue” what they are holding and it can get ugly quick. As far as starting cards are concerned, this is what we would suggest:

EP+1/EP+2 … Pocket Pairs AA-99, AK-A9 suited/off suit
MP+1/MP+2 … Pocket Pairs AA-55, AK-A5 suited/off suit
LP+1/LP+2 … Pocket Pairs AA-22, AK-A2 suited/off suit, suited connectors down to 5-6

This is looser than what you would play at a full 9 handed game. While you will find that many people say to play looser than this, it is crucial to keep in mind that if you are new you should still focus on playing quality over quantity. In the long run this will keep you out of trouble and when the time comes you can loosen up your game a bit more. The biggest differences in starting hands is the value of your Aces go up. You can play lower kickers more often as they will prove to be good quite often.

As a guide, we have this table below so that you can see where you’d be sitting in relation to the hands you would play.

Table Postion in Poker (screenshot of Aced Poker)

Hand Value & Betting

It is very important to keep in mind that although your Aces are worth more, so is everyone else’s. You will really have to focus on your kickers and get a good feel for where you may stand in the hand. A really good rule of thumb is to take your starting hand ranges from a full handed table and then just add a couple starting hands to that. For example, if you were to only play AA-JJ in early position at a full ring game, then you can consider adding maybe 1010-99 to you range, even as low as 88. Over adjusting can be one of the most fatal errors a player makes at a shorter table. There is no reason to over adjust, and the extra hands applied to your range is an aggressive enough adjustment.

A very important tool to have in your arsenal is betting. It is what sets the fish apart from the sharks. What tends to be the case more often then not, is player semi bluffing more often and reraising frequently. In a situation where you limped in the pot and someone raises you in later position, you will not know where you stand. This is an extreme disadvantage to you. Here is a couple good rules to remember:

Be #1. When you are the first person to enter a pot, raise. You can not complain if you just take the blinds.

If you have a solid read on a player or just are holding a very strong hand and you get raised, reraise them back! It is crucial to stand up for yourself as you are very likely to get ran over if you do not. Since starting hand ranges are going to vary slightly from a full handed table, everyone is going to be playing slightly weaker hands. If you have a good pair or two high cards, play them strongly. Something else to keep in mind is that other players tend to overvalue their Aces with weak kickers. Take advantage of this.

Play connectors suited or unsuited before the flop. Let them go if you completely brick the flop. They are a great for disguising your hand, but can really foul you up if you stick with them and they are no good.
Middle pair will have good value after the flop. Obviously you do not want to over value them, but play them as you would a high pair at a full handed table.

Playing Style Adjustments

You will immediate notice a difference at a shorter table then a full handed table. What is most important is the adjustments you make as a player. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you make the transition.

Do not be a tight player. The blinds come around 3 hands sooner. If you are a player that only plays Aces and Kings, you will be crushed.
Loose aggressive players may not have to adjust much. Your aggressiveness may cause you to backpedal and tighten up a bit as the other players at the table will have similar playing ranges.
Proper knowledge of implied odds and stack sizes are very important here.

Always raise or fold. Try not to just call hands if possible. Having the 2nd best hand does you absolutely no good. You need to have an idea of where you stand and project that to your opponent.

With the proper adjustments to your game you will notice that playing at a 6 handed table can really be a good break from the everyday grind of playing at larger tables. After playing at shorter tables you will find that you are much more aware of your surroundings and can use these things to better your game. You will find that you are better at dealing with pressure and that you can really open up your game to different strategies and starting hands. In short, you will be a much more rounded player with some 6 handed table experience under your belt.

Poker is a long term game of information. Obviously you can not see another players cards so you have to soak up information such as betting patterns, starting hand ranges, and other tells, like a sponge. And table position will affect you directly because all of this strategy adjusts as the dealer button moves clockwise around the table. To put this into perspective, one minute you can be sitting at the worst seat at the table, the small blind, and the next very hand you are in the best seat possible, the dealer button. And the dealer button is the best seat at the table because you will be the last person to act in every betting round allowing you to see all the action, or information, before you have to act.

Since some light has been shed on what position is and why it is important, you now need to know where you are sitting. “Halfway around the table” is not good enough. So how will you know where you are sitting? Very easy. Just imagine that the table is split into 3 sections with 3 players in each (Or 2 for a 6 handed table). Starting with the small blind you would count over 3 seats from the dealer button. This is known as Early Position or “EP.” Starting with the fourth seat from the dealer button and ending with the sixth seat is known as Middle Position or “MP.” And last, seats 7-9 are known as Late Position, otherwise known as “LP.” For the purpose of this article, we will refer to everything as position and seat number from the dealer button. For example, if you are on the button you would be LP+9 (late position and 9 seats from the dealer button) or if you were in the Small Blind you would be in EP+1. To better explain this, please take a look at our picture below.

Table Postion in Poker (screenshot of Aced Poker)

As you can see from the picture above, poker table position is a very clear cut idea and hopefully this sheds some light on how important it is. Another important factor in table position is the starting hands you play.

Poker Starting Hands

Why should you be concerned with starting hands in relation to table position ? As mentioned above, poker is a game of information. The more you have the better. How much experience do you hope to gain sitting in EP? Not a lot, right? For example, lets say you are in EP+3 and decided to play your favorite hand, the 10-J of spades and limp in for the minimum. Everyone folds down to the Big Blind who puts in a raise of 3 times the Big Blind. He has told you with a simple bet that he thinks he has a better hand. You look down at your favorite hand and realize that he is probably right and folds. Although it may not have been a lot, you still lost chips and accomplished nothing. Now if you were on the button on this hand, the roles could have been reversed and the 10-J of spades could have been playable.

Provided below is a starting hand guide. Now please be aware that this is only a guide and these hands may change due to your specific playing style.

EP+1-EP+2
AA-JJ, AK, AQ suited

LP+7-LP+9
AA-22, AK-A9 suited or off suit, Suited Connectors

It is also important to keep in mind that these hands are based off the fact that you are first to enter the pot. If you were not the first to enter you would have to consider the Gap Concept which basically states that you must have a better hand to call a raise with then if you were to make the first raise yourself.

Knowing the basics of poker table position and a few starting hands is really the tip of the iceberg. There is so much more to learn such as betting, slow playing, and using the positions you are sitting in to your advantage. All of these are affected in some way by poker table position and this is the reason why beginners should spend time learning what it is and how it relates to the game.

Speed of Play

If there is one thing that should immediately strike a player new to online poker, it is the speed of the game. A typical live poker game rolls along at an average rate hovering somewhere around 40 hands played per hour. Online poker is absolutely blazing past this at an average of approximately 110 hands played per hour, almost a 200 percent increase. Clearly online poker is faster than a live game, but whether this is a good thing or a bad thing depends entirely upon why you are playing. If you are primarily playing for a profit you are quite likely to want to take advantage of the speed of online play so you can get more hands (and therefore a higher earning potential) in any given day. If however you see poker as a very social game, the speed with which an online game progresses can make a simple game of poker seem far too mechanized.

Flexibility

For poker players who frequent some of the popular online poker rooms, there will never be a shortage of players looking for a game. Day or night, fellow poker players from all over the world want to play just as much as you do. If you limit your play to live games you must live very close to a casino to even come close to finding such a rich supply of games as can be found over the internet. Even if you factor in back room games, it is impossible for live players to have access to the flexibility and convenience offered by online play. Nobody wants to get together just to satisfy your need to play a few hands, and you probably do not feel like going to a casino every evening after work.

The Poker Experience

Unlike so many of the games offered in casinos (live and online) poker is far more than simply gambling. When you have a seat at a poker table your mentality is much different from that of a slots or craps player. You know you are not simply gambling, but engaging in an elegant game of skill, where your ability to read the man across from you is worth more than the cards in your hand and your fate can be reversed at any moment through daring maneuvering. Go to an online poker site and some of that magic seems lost. The game you know and love seems too broken down into mathematical strategies and odds. It can start to feel eerily like you are facing off against lady luck rather than pitting yourself against another human.

In the end of the day most poker players could use a healthy balance of online and live poker games. If you enjoy playing in casinos on vacation, you can keep sharp year round anywhere you have an internet connection. If your focus is making a regular profit in online games you still can’t deny the appeal of a live casino game, even if you only indulge yourself occasionally. Your best bet is to take advantage of both types of games and get the best of both worlds.