Everything in poker has meaning and can give you some sort of edge when leveraged correctly – and this includes where you get to sit around the table. In a tournament, you might be assigned a seat, but if you have the chance to pick your own then there are some things that you should definitely consider when selecting a seat.
Why Does a Seat Position Matter?
You always want to make sure that you have an advantage over the stronger players at your table. Ideally, you should be sitting to their left. Remember that play moves around a poker table in a clockwise direction.
The further round you are from the dealer, the more information you are going to be able to see about the game, and this could help you to determine what the right play you should make at that moment will be.
This will allow you to make decisions and responses as prudent as possible. Do you want to raise and push the other players, or are you just going to check and wait for another opportunity? The right seat at the table can put you in a great position for trying to suss out your opponents and their cards very early on.
How Often Do You Get to Choose?
You won’t always get to choose your own seat in a game. Sometimes you might just have to make do. In tournaments, they are often randomly assigned. When you reach your table, you will be told where to sit.
You might also be asked to approach the table at random, meaning that you will get to select your seat, but you might not get that much of a choice.
In online games, like those at ggpoker.co.uk, positions will always be completely random. You might not even be able to tell precisely where you are sitting since the HUD might show something different for every player.
Of course, this relies on you being in a game with a fixed and independent dealer. If you are playing with friends or in a more casual setting, the dealer is going to change with every hand. This means that your position around the table will change with every hand, and you will have to change up your approach each time.
Positions You Want to Consider
The earlier in the rotation you are, the more you will have to lead. You will not have any information about your other players, so you need to make sure that any plays you make are confident.
A good seat you might want to consider is the hijack seat, or the person who is third-to-last to play. They have a good amount of information from players who have gone before, as well as a chance to intimidate the next two to play.
The second-to-last and last players are in some of the strongest positions. That second-to-last player, also known as the cutoff, even has the opportunity to convince the last player to fold if they know how to do it properly.
In a game like poker, you need to make sure that you are always looking for something that can give you an edge over the other players. Something as simple as choosing the right seat at the table could give you that advantage. Poker is a much more complex game than you might think.
As table positions can demonstrate, it might start long before you are dealt your first cards. It could start from the moment that you sit down at the table – so make sure you know how to turn it in your favour.
