You’ve probably heard in the past how important table position is when you’re playing Texas Holdem. If you don’t already know why table position is important then we’re going to walk you through it right now. For the sake of this article we’re going to assume that you’re playing a full ring game with 9-10 players. The way you play certain hands should change according to the position you have in the hand and we’ll show you why.

Let’s take a look at playing the early position first. In the early position you really need to be cautious with how strong you play certain hands. You’ll be able to play your premium hands as strong as you would like, but hands such as A-10, A-J and K-Q suited will need to be played more cautiously. Since you’re in an early position and you need to act before most of the other players on the table you don’t want to commit to many of your chips on a hand you’re not willing to go all-in with. Since you haven’t been able to see how most of the other players have acted yet in the hand you won’t have any idea how strong your hand is.

When you’re in middle position you get to see how some of the table acts before you need to act, but you still need to worry about the players in late position. Preflop you should play your hand slowly unless it’s a premium hand. After the flop you’ll need to re-evaluate your position in the hand. If most of the late positioned players folded then you might now be in late position after the flop.

Late position is the best position that you can have on the poker table when you’re playing Texas Holdem. When you’re playing preflop you’ll be able to see how everyone else acts before you which is a huge advantage. If players limp into the pot you could possibly raise it up and get everyone to fold. You can also limp into the pot yourself with a marginal hand if everyone has limped into the pot before you. You want to try and see a lot of cheap flops when you’re in late position. After the flop you’ll have an advantage over your opponent because they need to decide whether to check or bet into you. If they check they typically are showing weakness and you can steal the pot regardless of what you have. Sometimes players will check when they have a monster hand though, so make sure you don’t over bet the pot when you try stealing it.

When you analyze your game you should notice that you’re playing more hands in late position. If you aren’t currently then you need to change how you’re playing. You’re either playing too many hands in early or middle position when it’s less then ideal to be playing hands or you’re not playing enough small pots in late position. When you’re in late position and limping into a pot you can open up your range to basically any pocket pair, suited connector, suited cards and connected cards. If you don’t hit on the flop then you can simply fold your hand and it only cost you the BB.