If there’s one poker concept that separates beginners from players who win more often, it’s this:
👉 Where you sit at the table (your position) matters as much as the cards in your hand.
If you want to win more chips with less risk, start paying attention to your position at the table. In poker, position simply means when you act in relation to everyone else, and it can make the difference between winning small pots, winning big pots, or losing chips you didn’t have to.
When you act last, you get to see what everyone else does before making your decision. That extra information is worth a lot in poker. The later your position, the more control you have over the pot and, ultimately, your stack.
In our next event—the 2025 Win-the-Button Championship—your position will be changing more than ever, making this topic extra important.
🎲 Did You Know? Poker Position Basics
At a 6–8 handed table like ours, here’s what each seat is usually called:
- Button (BTN): The dealer position—last to act after the flop, turn, and river.
- Cutoff (CO): The seat before the Button.
- Hijack (HJ): The seat before the Cutoff.
- Lojack (LJ): The seat before the Hijack.
- Under the Gun (UTG) and Early Position (EP): With more than 6 players at the table, the first player to act is referred to as “Under the Gun” (UTG), and other players between UTG and LJ are sometimes referred to as “Early Position.”
- Blinds (SB, BB): The forced bets that start the action preflop.
👉 Quick order around the table: SB → BB → UTG → [EP] → LJ → HJ → CO → BTN
👉 Quick takeaway: the later your position, the more power you have.
Why Position is So Powerful
- More Information = Better Decisions. When you act later, you get to see who checks, who bets, and who folds before you make your move. That means you’re not guessing—you’re reacting with more information than your opponents. And that information is gold in poker.
- Your Hands Don’t Need to Be as Strong. The fewer players left to act after you, the wider your range of playable hands can be. On the Button, you can profitably raise hands like K♦️2♦️, A♦️2♠️, Q♣️3♣️, or even J♥️8♠️—hands you’d fold without a second thought in early position. The reason? Acting last lets you play speculative hands cheaply and put pressure on earlier players when they show weakness. Plus, you know that there will be fewer players in the pot, unlike when you raise in earlier position and you are unsure how many players behind you will call.
- You Control the Size of the Pot. Acting last lets you decide whether a pot stays small (by checking behind) or grows big (by betting or raising). In early position, you don’t have this luxury—someone else always has the final say.
Common Mistake: Ignoring Position
Many newer players treat all seats the same, limping into pots from anywhere with whatever hand they like. The problem? Playing weak hands out of position usually leads to tough, expensive situations later in the hand.
Common Objection: “But I Can Play Good Hands from Anywhere!”
It’s true that some hands can be played from any position. And you’ll even sometimes win big pots from early position. But even the best hands win less chips from early position over the long run. And even average hands can win quite a few chips when played from late position. Poker is a game of information; the more information you have, the more chips you will tend to win.
How to Use This Tip Right Away
- Play tighter (fewer hands) from early position.
- Play looser (more hands) from late position.
- Value your Button—it’s the most profitable seat in poker.1
🚀 Takeaway Challenge
At our next game, try this: notice which position you’re in before every hand you play. Ask yourself, “Would I play this hand if I had to act first? Would I play it if I were last?” Start adjusting your decisions based on the answer.
What’s Next?
Now that you know why position matters, the natural next step is learning how to handle the trickiest spots at the table: the blinds. In our next article, we’ll cover smart strategies for the Small Blind and Big Blind—where you’re forced to put in chips, often with weak hands, and must play the rest of the hand out of position.
- If you’d like some guidelines on just how much to adjust your hand selection based on your position, I have two suggestions for you. For some relatively simple rules to follow, see my Beginner-Friendly Hand Chart; I would suggest playing the hands in red from any position, the hands in blue from the middle positions (LJ and HJ), and the hands in green from the later positions (CO and BTN). These are not perfect adjustments. In particular, you can consider playing more offsuit hands from the later positions. So, for those of you who want a more accurate set of starting hands, I would suggest checking out these free charts on PokerCoaching.com (just scroll down a little bit on the page). ↩︎