Texas Holdem Position Betting
Let's now take a closer look at Texas Holdem strategy and the pattern that is essential for beginners to learn. The chart shows how many hands you are supposed to play depending on which position you sit in at the table. Example: You are sitting as player 6 to the left of the dealer button and you have a king of spades and a 7 of spades. Misunderstanding the value of betting position is another rookie mistake. Even Texas Holdem players who have a good understanding of hand values get in trouble when they bet out of position. By doing so, poker players drift into the deep waters by over-betting hands that are weaker than they believe.
In this post, I shall refer to the hand rankings by group in Hand Rankings and Strengths. Additionally, we are only considering six-player limit hold ’em play. The sites that I have signed up to have six-player and ten-player tables, but I have decided I want to stick to six-player tables because there are fewer players to be dealt a hand that might outplay your own hand. Also, it simplifies the calculus involved in dealing with late position players. Finally, most poker sites have a time to act, a ten or fifteen second counter limiting the time you have to make a playing decision. So, the following is based on my reading of pre-flop betting tactics.
Firstly, position is of prime importance in deciding which hands to play, so if you are in the small blind or big blind positions, although you are acting last in the pre-flop betting round, you will be acting first in post-flop betting, so you should fold all hands other than Groups 1 to 3, which is sixteen hands.
If you are in the third position, also known as under the gun – the position to the left of the big blind which acts first before board cards are dealt – you are under pressure because you don’t have any information about the hands that come after you. If you raise, you are indicating to players who follow you that you have a strong hand and they may fold if they have weaker hands; if you call you are limping, which may be considered to be weak and passive play, or slow-playing, which is not good behavior for a tight-aggressive player, but you likely want to see how the players who come after you will behave. In any case, raise on Groups 1 to 3, and call on Group 4 – a total of twenty-four hands to play.
If you are in fourth or fifth positions and the under the gun player has called, you should raise on Groups 1 to 3 and call on Group 4. If the under the gun player has raised, then raise on Groups 1 to 3 and call on Groups 4 and 5 – a total of thirty-five hands to play.
Texas Holdem Position Betting
If you are the dealer button, regardless of previous player actions, raise on Groups 1 to 4. and call on Group 5. This is the strongest position to play because you have seen all players call, raise, or fold before you and you have a good idea of what they are holding based on their actions.
Position Betting In Texas Holdem
Finally, if you are the small blind or big blind, you are the last to act in pre-flop betting, and the first to act in post-flop betting, so raise on Groups 1 to 3 and fold all other hands.
Texas Hold'em Position Betting
Players should only consider Groups 6 to 8 if they are playing loose-aggressive, or considering a bluff. It should go without saying that all the other hands are garbage and should be folded.
I will likely revisit this post once I have started to play online, depending on how it works out using this procedure. There are no hard and fast rules in Texas hold ’em and I view what I have written as provisional and subject to change.