Seating Yourself at the Table: Middle Position
Like the experts say, position is very important (keep your thoughts clean now – we’re talking about Texas Hold ‘Em here!!)
Ok, now that we’ve cleared that up, let’s talk about position in Texas Hold ‘Em. Specifically, let’s talk about “Middle Position”.
In Texas Hold ‘Em, the word “position” refers to your turn / seat position during a game. Middle position is like the name suggests: it’s a middle position between other player’s positions (early position and late position), and has both advantages and disadvantages (it’s sort of like being a middle child!) To understand middle position, we should take a look at the other two playing positions first.
- Early Position: This is the person who starts the action in any round. In the first round, it’s the player to the left of the big blind. In other hands, it’s the player to the left of the dealer. This position is considered bad because you’re one of the first players to act. You cannot observe what your opponents will do before you act, and you really can’t observe body language for clues.
- Late Position: The person who acts last for the round. This person sees what everyone else does before acting, so they have the biggest advantage.
Middle position is everyone between these two players. Of course, since it really refers to more than one person (in general terms) that can mean things like early middle position or late middle position (which can get confusing, so let’s just stick to middle.)
Now that we understand positions in Texas Hold ‘Em, let’s talk about what you can do if you find yourself in middle position.
Texas Hold ‘Em strategy suggests you play different hands differently according to your position. Since you are in a weaker position at early position, you’ll want stronger hands to compensate. Late position gives you advantages, so you’re able to take some chances such as playing drawing hands (where you need more cards).
So with middle position you have to find a middle point between the two strategies. In this case, you have freedom to try some riskier hands, because at least one person before you has already acted (either by betting or folding), but you can’t quite take the same risks that someone in late position can enjoy. So, if nobody before you raised, go ahead and do such if you feel your hand justifies it. Or, if someone before you raises big, perhaps folding is better of your hand is weak.
With middle position, you have some options, because you have some information (being “stuck in the middle” isn’t all bad) but you don’t have it all. So play accordingly.
Good luck out there, and may you enjoy all the positions available (clean thoughts, now!!)
