Position is Everything

What 'position' means

Position = where you sit relative to the dealer button. The button (BTN) rotates clockwise after each hand, and that's the best seat in poker — you act last on every postflop street, which means you have more information than everyone else when it's your turn.

The 6 main positions (6-max)

Most online cash games use 6-max (6 players per table). The seats are:

• •UTG (Under the Gun) — first to act preflop. Worst position.
• •MP (Middle Position) — second to act.
• •CO (Cutoff) — second-to-last preflop, late position.
• •BTN (Button) — last to act postflop. Best position.
• •SB (Small Blind) — forced bet of 0.5bb. Bad postflop position.
• •BB (Big Blind) — forced bet of 1bb. Bad position but already invested.

Why position matters so much

Acting last lets you see what everyone else does before you decide. You play more hands profitably from late position (BTN, CO) and fewer from early (UTG, MP). This is the #1 most important concept in poker after hand strength.

What acting last actually buys you

'More information' is the slogan. Here is what it converts into in real chips:

• •Free cards. Holding a draw in position, if your opponent checks you can check behind and see the next card for nothing.
• •Pot control. You set the final size of the pot on every street — keep it small with a medium hand, build it with a strong one.
• •Cheaper bluffs. You bluff after seeing weakness rather than before, so a far higher share of your bluffs actually work.
• •Better folds. Chips you save by folding to action that already happened are chips the out-of-position player has already committed.
• •Cleaner value. On the river you know whether they're willing to put money in before you choose your final bet size.

Your seat decides how many hands you play

The practical consequence is that hand selection isn't one list — it's a list per seat. Typical solid 6-max opening ranges, including the ones in our preflop charts, open somewhere around 15-18% of hands from under the gun and roughly 40-50% from the button. Same player, same skill, same cards; close to three times as many hands become profitable purely because of when you act. It's also why 'is AJ offsuit a good hand?' has no answer on its own: it's a comfortable open on the button, marginal in middle position, and a fold under the gun at most stakes.

Preflop position and postflop position are not the same

One wrinkle catches everyone out. The blinds act last preflop — they've already posted, so the action closes on them — and then act first on every street after the flop. That reversal is exactly why the blinds are the two losing seats at every table: the single round where they have position is the cheapest one, and they're out of position for all three expensive ones. In multiway pots there's a second layer called relative position: sitting immediately behind whoever is doing the betting is worth nearly as much as the button, because you always see their action before you commit yours.

Surviving the blinds

Since you can't avoid the blinds, the goal is to lose less in them than everyone else does. Two habits do most of the work: fold quickly from the small blind rather than 'completing' with weak hands you'll have to play out of position all night, and defend the big blind wider than you'd play anywhere else, because your posted blind gives you a discount on the call. Lesson 9 covers the exact mechanics of big-blind defence. For now, treat the blinds as a cost of doing business and take the positional profit back on the button.