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The Importance of Position in Poker

In poker, players place a small amount of money into the pot before cards are dealt. These are called forced bets and come in the forms of antes, blinds, or bring-ins. In addition to these bets, money can also be placed into the pot voluntarily by players who believe that their bet has a positive expected value. The game of poker is mostly skill-based, but there are a number of things that can derail even the most well-planned strategy. For instance, human nature will often try to derail a player’s good intentions with bad calls and ill-advised bluffs.

One of the most important concepts to understand is position. Regardless of the type of poker game you play, your position at the table has a significant impact on the range of hands that your opponents are likely to have and how often they will be willing to raise or re-raise with those hands.

When you are in early position, it is always a good idea to slow-play your hand because players later in the action have more information about what kind of hand you’re holding and can make more informed decisions about calling or raising. Likewise, when you are in late position, it’s usually best to be more aggressive and raise with your strong hands so that other players will be more likely to fold and allow you to win the hand without having to battle it out to a showdown.