Position in poker is one of the most easily overlooked concepts for a new player, and is one of the most important concepts if you want to succeed in poker.

We will refer to this below chart for the remainder of the post.

We’ll also abbreviate the positions in ways you will encounter on poker forums, and on pokerflux

Under The Gun : UTG

Big Bling : BB

Small Blind : SB

Cut-Off : CO

Button : BTN

There are other names for positions, but these are the most vital, whether you’re playing Six Max, Full Ring, or Heads Up.

Under The Gun if the first to act PRE Flop, while the Small Blind is first to act POST Flop, and play continues in the clockwise manner, as you can see in most instances, the UTG is very early to act, and the Button is often the last to act, except for preflop.

It would be easy to tell you that you should play less hands from Earlier Positions, Under The Gun to Middle Position, and to play More Hands in positions like the Cutoff and the Button, but we’re here to explain why, to get you thinking about the game.

The reason you want to play more hands from Later Positions, is that you get far more information than other players, being able to see what every other player ahead of you did before you have to make any decisions is not something to be under valued, and if you have more information, you’re able to play more hands cheaper, since you can simply fold if they bet ahead of you, so feel free to play 35% of your hands in the Button if you can see the flop cheaply enough, but be careful about playing anything Under the Gun or from the Blinds, you have everyone else at the table to deal with, and you are at their mercy.

We’ll expand on the concept of Position and betting in position in later posts, for now just get yourself familiar with the basic rules of poker, and what position means in technical terms.

For now try your skills at the play money or micro stakes tables.