Button Position In Poker

DECISION POINT: It's a cash game, $2/$5 no-limit hold'em, and everyone is relatively deep-stacked. A player in early position (UTG+1) raises and everyone folds to you on the button. You have and the action is on you...

PRO ANSWER: Many players make the mistake in their preflop decision-making process of viewing hands like a hierarchy. They believe they should raise with really strong hands, fold with weak hands and call with medium-strength hands. If they have a hand that's too good to fold but not good enough to raise, players tend to think calling is the best play.

As poker has evolved it's very common to see players raising when on the button very regularly. Especially if all players before the button have folded. This puts the raiser in a position of power as they only have to force folds from the small and big blind. These players already have money committed to the pot and have completely random hands. The late positions in poker are the button (BTN) player - who is dealer of that round. And the player on their right - the Cutoff (CO). These positions are the last to act. Making them the most powerful positions because they have the most information on players. On poker: The strength of the button position Share this: Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window). The power of playing the button is so strong because your opponents are forced to act.

This is not a good way to think about poker situations. When making preflop decisions we always want to put ourselves in the best possible postflop situation for our hand.

Button Position In Poker Player

Here we have -offsuit on the button. Certainly this is a well above average hand for the button. If the action had folded around to us, then we would definitely come in for a raise first into the pot.

Button Position In Poker Tournaments

Button position in poker tournamentButton

However, in this situation we are facing an early position raise from an unknown player. Since early position players tend to have strong hand ranges and the raise came from an unknown player, we should assume a hand range like or better or or better until proven otherwise. Our -offsuit is well behind that range, so we should elect to fold.

We see many players calling in situations like this because they think a hand like ace-jack is 'too good to fold' but not 'good enough to raise.' Calling in this spot creates a terrible situation for you. In most cases when significant money goes into the pot postflop here, will be dominated.

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Button Position In Poker Tournament

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Button Position Poker

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    cash game strategystarting hand selectionpositionhand readingrange readingno-limit hold’em