Relative Position

Any experienced poker player will be able to tell you the importance of position in any hand, especially so in the game of Texas Holdem. Acting last and being able to see how your opponents play before deciding on your action can give you a tremendous advantage over the other players in the hand. Therefore seats such as the button and the cut off are often the most profitable and prized seats at the table, as you will have position over the other players that enter the pot. However, there is another important factor that can increase or decrease the value of your actual position at the table, this factor is known as ‘relative position’.

Relative position is your position in relation to the pre-flop raiser. There is often going to be a pre-flop raiser in the game of Texas Holdem, and your relative position at the table in relation to this raiser can be good or bad depending on where you are sat and how many players are left to act after you. Relative position can sometimes play such an important factor in a hand, that your actual position can be rendered worthless even if you are on the button and are last to act. Therefore it is recommended that you familiarise yourself with these following principles.

As already mentioned, there is usually going to be a preflop raiser in any given hand in Texas Holdem. Similarly, it is common practice that this preflop raiser will make a continuation bet after the flop if they are first to act or if the other players have checked to them. This is because they are representing a strong hand, and they may well take down the pot regardless of whether they have a good hand or not. The principle of relative position and its significance relies on this very important fact that a preflop raiser will be making a continuation bet on the flop.

Now because it is common place for a preflop raiser to make a continuation bet, the other players in the hand will expect this and frequently check to the preflop raiser if they are first to act, to then see how the preflop raiser acts. This means that if we are the player that is acting after the player that makes the continuation bet, we have been put in a tricky situation if there are players left to act behind us. This is because the players that have checked to the raiser could have any range of hands from a weak hand to a monster, and we have now been effectively sandwiched between two players; a player that could have a potentially strong hand making the continuation bet, and a player that checked to the raiser who could have any range of hands.

Here is an example to illustrate how relative position can put you at a disadvantage in a hand, despite having good actual position:

Say we are on the button with Q J, and the action has folded around to a player in late position who makes a standard 3.5BB raise. The remaining players in late position fold to us, and we decide to make the call as we have a decent hand that has some potential. The small blind folds and the big blind calls, so 3 players go the flop. The flop comes Q 7 6, giving us a decent top pair. The big blind checks to the raiser, who then makes a good ¾ pot size bet.

Now the problem here is that any play we now make will not be closing off the action, as the player behind us now has the opportunity to act again. We have now been sandwiched between a player that has made a continuation bet with a potentially strong hand, and between another player that could also have a stronger hand than ours as their check did not necessarily signify strength or weakness. Their check neither shows strength nor weakness because they are confident that they preflop raiser will make a continuation bet, and so they may be checking with the intention of raising when the action gets back to them. Here is how the play looks and how we have been sandwiched:

A call in this situation would not be bad, but we are leaving ourselves open to losing chips to the player in the small blind if they decide to check raise. Furthermore, if the small blind decides to call as well, we will go to the turn to be put in the same tricky situation as we were on the flop. As you can see we are now in a pot that could potentially lose us a significant number of chips because we have a decent holding but with very little information on our opponents. However, we could raise the preflop raiser’s bet to find out more information on where we stand, but this could cost us a lot of chips for every time the small blind or preflop raiser has a better hand than ours.

Evaluation
Hopefully the above example has helped to highlight how your position relative to the preflop raiser can have a big impact on your actual position at the table. The best relative position to have is to be to the right of the preflop raiser, which is because your action will then close off the betting on that particular round if the raiser does make the common continuation bet. You will also be able to see how the players that had checked to the raiser react when the raiser does indeed make the continuation bet, so you will be able to have a better knowledge of where you stand in the hand. You should always try and evaluate your relative position in any hand along with your actual position, as it will have a bigger impact than you may think.

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