Good day people of the Realms
I am hosting the Stacked Deck Final Table in Clontarf Castle at the start of the new year. It is always great to see the 16 players battle it out. We have yet to know exactly who will be there, but it is shaping up to be a very competitive day. Thinking about that day, and that I will not be playing I thought I would offer up some thoughts on playing the game.
Quick note if you wish to be able to follow along or have an interest in Stacked Deck updates, please reach out to me and I will add you to the book of faces where such things happen.
Where I am on the table is sometimes more important than the cards I am playing. Where I am in relation to the button is called position. The later position the better.
A quick note about the button. Most games have a dedicated Dealer. This is someone who is probably not playing. Historically after every hand, the dealer changes one player to the left as each player takes a turn being the dealer. But, when you have a dedicated dealer, you don’t want that person getting up and moving every hand, so instead we have a button that says dealer on it that represents where the dealer would be sitting. Most dedicated dealers sit as close to the middle of the table, so they have good access to everyone.
Now because the button moves around the table after each hand, sometimes you will be first to act, sometimes last, sometimes somewhere in between. Depending on your position to the dealer (button).
At this point I am also going to mention blinds. To make sure there is something to play for in each hand, the first person after the button puts in a “little” blind, and the next person puts in a “big” blind. This has to happen every hand. Generally, the big blind is equal to the minimum bet. In a gold/cash game that would probably be two golds. With the little blind putting in one gold. In tournaments to keep the action going the blinds increase based on time.
So, before the cards are even dealt, the first person after the button puts in a small blind and the next puts in the big blind. Then the cards are dealt. Now the next person to act to the left of the big blind is sometimes called “Under the Gun” not entirely sure what a “Gun” is but that is what it is called. These three and the next player are usually referred to as “early” position. The next 3-4 players are middle position, and the rest are “late” position. Now, in poker it’s an advantage to know what your opponent is going to do before you must decide on what you are going to do.
If you decide to play when you are in early position, you will probably have to go first and give away what you want to do with a hand most often. Middle position about half the time, late position you will have the advantage.
Let’s say you are in early position with a weak hand like 4 7 off suit; it’s an easy hand to fold and move on. (See my notes from the last article). If, however you have a medium strength hand like Queen Jack, (suited or not, but preferably suited) then it’s a playable hand, and you might put in chips. Now if someone in middle or late position raises you, they might have a better hand, King Queen for example, or an Ace, or a pair. Your Queen Jack may or may not be the best hand. In early position you might even decide to fold this hand just in case someone behind you raises.
In middle position half (approximately) of the field have already shown you what they want to do, without any raises you might raise this hand, with weak raises you might call this hand, against strong raises you might fold this hand. Because you can see what some of your opponents want to do you have some advantage. However, let’s say that someone in early position makes a small raise. You have Queen Jack suited, and decide to re-raise them, then someone in late position re-raises you. Now you may not be sure what to do. You think your hand might be better than the early raise, but maybe not as good as the late raise.
In late position you have a lot of advantage in you see what your opponents want to do first. So maybe everybody folds to you, and you are in late position you might want to raise with a weaker selection of cards. Most everyone has already folded so you are up against fewer players. keep in mind that you will have this same advantage in each betting round.
Some important things to keep in mind. Hand selection and position go hand in hand. A hand I might play for a raise in late position I might fold or just call in an early position. Also, this is true of every round, of betting. The same positions matters for before the flop, after the flop, turn, and river.
If you are in the little blind and no-one has raised, you have some options. If you have a good hand, you can of course raise. if you have a medium hand you might want to “limp in”. just put in the other half of the bet, or if you hand is especially bad you might want to fold to preserver you chip stack. Keep in mind that at this point everyone except the big blind did not like their hand or position and decided not to play this hand. If you are the big blind and everyone just “limps in” (just putting in the minimum), you have the same kind of choices; you can check and that closes out action on the pre-flop round so the dealer would collect the bets and put out a flop. Or you can raise, once again thinking about hand strength to how big a raise you might want to put in.
Next time I will discuss stack and betting sizes.
See you on the felt!
Duke Tao Ya Kang