Position, Position, Position.

In real estate or any good business, the motto is "location, location, location". And I'm sure it sounds cliche but it is not only true but very important for poker players to know, "position, position, position".

In Doyle Brunson's Super System he describes how he plays particular hands and how he would potentially play them from various positions. He is very specific about AA, KK, AKs, QQ, "small" pairs (Jacks or lower) and suited connectors. He goes on to say any hand he explicitly did not mention he throws away. Of course this is very general because if he played exactly that way he would not be the legend he is. David Sklansky takes it a step further in Hold 'em: For Advanced Players. He places starting hands into groups: AA, KK, QQ, AKs are groups 1 and so on. Sklansky then describes when to play each group (I have yet to reach the part where he says how to play those hands. But the thing I got from both is position, also something that finally became clear when I sat down at a live table.

I sat down to play three times last night and I'll start with the last first. I had just played in a grueling tournament for two hours and couldn't fall asleep so I sat back down at a $50 max buy-in table (NL of course). It was a full table, or ring game as Mr. Brunson likes to say. So I used the combined knowlegde of position and card selection and as if it were a perfect world it worked. In fact, once I established a table image, I had complete control. The table was tight so I played loose and mostly stole blinds (too many people folding to even the slightest pre-flop raise). I was also getting good cards so that helped. I lost a few hands but that really helped me more than anything because it got people to call more. I was down to about $25 when I got hot and not even with great cards, mostly I just used the word of the day, "position". I turned things around and by the time the last person left the table I was up about $21 (the cost of the tourny I entered earlier). An example of using my position was I limped- in with nothing and the button after about 6 callers. I think I had 9 4 offsuit (yeah a real power hand). Anyway, the flop comes rainbow 2 Q J. Checks around to me, I bet the pot. I get one caller. Blank on the river, check to me, I bet half the pot and take it down. Aggression and position. Got to love it.

So the first time I sat down, I was thawing chicken and decided to entertain myself (ADD kicked in). Second hand I get pocket rockets. Usually I lose with the aces so I raised to $3. Oh yeah, blinds are $.50/1 NL $100 max buy-in. I get one caller (there were about 5 callers of the big blind). The flop comes 2c 10s 6h (or something like that, can't remember suits). I bet $10, the guy calls, I'm thinking Kings or maybe he played a Brunson? Turn is a deuce, so again I bet the pot, he calls. Now I'm thinking he's an idiot or has some magic cards. The river comes a magical Ace giving me the boat, I thinking this guy has a lot in this pot and he is representing a strong hand, so I go all-in with $53 (mind you this is my second hand). HE CALLS! Of course I take the pot and he mucks. On my fifth hand I bring down another monster pot and decide that the chicken has to be thawed by now. So six hands $150 up and I'm out like Seacrest. Now I know this doesn't happen all the time and that I happened to catch good cards and people willing to call, but I had to share the beauty of no-limit hold 'em.

Final story and then class will be dismissed. So all my poker talk has been about NL Texas Hold 'Em which happens to be the most popular thing out there right now. On the way back from OKC, I was reading Card Player magazine (and Brunson talked about it too in his book) about giving action to several types of games and being versatile. So last night I decided to play 7 card stud in a tournament (the $7000 Guarantee on PP). I'm not a stud player so I quickly scanned over what Super System had to say before I sat down in such a tournament. I mainly browsed the starting hand section and walked away not feeling like I had some mystical formula or anything, but for $20 what the heck. 376 was the final total of entrants raising the prize pool to $7520 with the top 40 receiving money. One thing I did read was being careful of your "position" in relation to the person bringing it. I more or less dominated my table and was chip leader (of my table) heading into hour two. Blinds were getting big so the weaker players were finally getting knocked out (it took about an hour an fifteen before the first person got knocked out on my table). Then it was a mass exodus and people with bigger stacks than me showed up. No longer the big stack I tightened game. Then the big stack (12000) knocked out two in one hand closing my table. I got shipped to a table where I was about mid stack with 3400. I won a couple of small pots, but got sucked into one that dropped me to about 1200. The guy only brought it in for 50 with a 4 showing. It folds around to me and I have a pair of 6s with an 8. I complete hoping to steal the antes. Nope he calls (not to mention I'm chip dominated). He gets a 2 and I got a 9, he bets 200, I call (should have raised). Junk for him again, he bets, I raise, he re-raises and I'm all-in. He has only a pair of 5s. Then he catches a 2 on the end for two pair and I'm sent home (wait I was already home...). Needless to say, I finished 76 out of 376, which I feel good about since stud isn't "my game". Just shy of the money but I felt like I played well and I had a good time so.