We have talked about position and the button; now let’s consider playing a hand “out of position”. What exactly does that mean? Let’s look at an example.

In Texas Hold’em you have A7 suited and you decide to see a flop. Two players behind you also call. The flop is AK8 with one heart, one spade and one club. You are first to act. What runs through your head is: I have flopped top pair-Aces! But, AK, AQ, AJ, A10, A9 and A8 are ahead of me and those are hands often played. Right, but also you have to act first, if you bet and are raised, you are going to have to throw away your hand. If you check and either of the other players bets, you are also going to give it up. The problem here is not that you played A7; the problem is that you played it out of position.

If you were last to act, instead of first and both players in front of you checked, then a bet by you might take down the pot. Even if the post-flop action is check, check, check; on the next round you are still first to act and have no idea if your aces are good or if someone is just waiting to pounce if you come out with a bet.

So what do you do out of position, fold every hand? No, of course not! When out of position you must vary your play. Certainly we fold more middle range hands out of position but when you play be prepared to be aggressive and come out firing on a flop that hits you. If you can’t pull the trigger after you hit part of a flop then that A7 suited should either be folded pre-flop or at least be considered a weak hand being played by a weak player and that is not a good winning combination.

-This is Beginner’s Poker Blog Post #15

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