When you play Texas Hold ‘em poker online and started playing some tournaments or cash games you will have noticed the strength that comes with being in position. Opponents respect position and late position especially affords chances to play different hands and exploit the temporary strong place in the action you hold. Everyone gets a chance to be in position so you should be exploiting every opportunity to benefit from it as your opponents will be able to do the same things to you in just a few hands time.
According to where you are sitting at the poker table in Texas Hold ‘em some hands are playable and others are not, unless you decide to bluff. When you are directly to the left of the big blind, known as “under the gun or UTG” you are first to act pre-flop and then third to act post flop if both blinds remain in the hand. Playing a hand without seeing what every other member of the table is doing is obviously a disadvantage which is why recommended poker strategy says you should fold most hands from early position.
In online poker, players began to realise the negative image that under the gun players have. Clever players realised that a raise from under the gun, therefore out of position, looks very strong. Against a tight player you can limp in under the gun and re-raise in a bluff squeeze play to win the pot pre-flop. This requires real knowledge on your part that the opponent you are making the squeeze play on can fold.
Online poker strategy has come full circle as if you are a tight player acting under the gun your perceived hand range is probably AA, KK, AK or QQ when you make the re-raise and if you still receive action you need to be cautious. If you hold Aces pre-flop then a re-raise all-in is the natural play, but what do you do with anything less? Depending on your opponent Queens will probably be played if you feel he could make the play with anything less than a premium hand. Remember your position under the gun signifies strength so having the late position player re-raising or raising your limp narrows his range to stronger hands. You do, however, need to be cautious and becoming creative from early position is an advanced strategy in poker.
Let us imagine you hold JJ under the gun. You limp in for 2 dollars in a $1/$2 no limit cash game and are called by the button. The big blind checks. The flop comes down 3s-5d-Td. The big blind checks to you and you bet out a pot sized bet of $7 and the button player raises to $27 costing you a further $20 to call. The big blind folds, so what do you do? He has limped pre-flop so you can rule out overpairs unless you know he is tricky. He could easily have a suited connector giving a straight or flush draw, or he could have 99 or 88. There is the chance of a set although TT would probably have seen a re-raise. You call the $20. The pot is now $61. The turn is a Qd. Now you can either bet out or check.
In this spot you would love to see what the opponent does before checking. (Of course you could check but as you have checked if your opponent bets this is not as telling as if they acted first). Fearing the flush and set or overpair you check. He bets $45. You feel bad but you fold. Why fold? There are so many hands that beat you and the only thing you are beating is an Ace rag hand and there are now overcards. If they had AQ they are winning, KQ of diamonds is now ahead.
Swap the positions at the table and you would have re-raised with jacks pre-flop after the under the gun limp (assuming he took the same action) and perhaps took down the hand. Any suited connector the opponent held would have really struggled to come up with a reason to play out of position when you are betting big from late position. Notice that once the late position player starting betting in our example things got uncomfortable for us. Remember that when you are playing, position is a big part of winning poker.
By Malcolm Clarke