Poker Strategy
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Tadas Peckaitis has been a professional poker player, coach and author for almost a decade. He is a manager and head coach at mypokercoaching.com where he shares his experience, and poker strategy tips. Tadas plays poker, mostly online, but also manages to play live events while travelling through Europe and the U.S. He is a big fan of personal effectiveness and always trying to do more. Tadas regularly shares his knowledge about both of these topics with his students, and deeply enjoys it. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, or visit www.mypokercoaching.com

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Top 10 reasons position matters in poker
 
23 March 2026
By Tadas Peckaitis

If you talk to any great poker mind, they will tell you that position is one of the crucial elements of the game of poker. Yet, most novice poker players don’t understand why that is.

Therefore, we have prepared a short guide explaining why it matters.

Keep reading and find out the top 10 reasons that make position so important in poker, and the ways to exploit these advantages to maximize your profits.

10. Playing more hands
Being in position allows you to play more hands profitably than you could do out of position. The dealer button is the one position where you can truly expand your ranges, as it guarantees you last action against all players at the table.

If you watch the best poker players ply their trade, you will notice they expand their ranges significantly whenever they are on the dealer button or the cutoff.

This is because all the other advantages of position, which we have discussed in earlier points, simply give you a big enough edge that you can afford to play more cards. If you are looking for a reason to get involved in more hands, just wait until you are in a good starting position, and then expand your range to any reasonable starting hand.

9. Avoiding monsters preflop
Playing in late positions gives you a chance to see other players act before the flop, which can sometimes save you in a major cooler spot.

For example, imagine having 13 big blinds in a poker tournament. In an early position, you are dealt AJ and decide to go all-in with your hand. Two players behind you hold QQ and AA, and you are eliminated from the tournament.

However, the same hand dealt to the dealer button may not result in your elimination. The two players with their big hands act before you, putting in an early position raise and a middle position re-raise.

Against these starting hand ranges, you can comfortably fold your AJ for 13 big blinds and survive to fight another day.

8. Losing less with marginal hands
Poker position is not only valuable as a means of maximizing your winnings with the big hands, but also minimizing your losses with the weaker ones.

Controlling the size of the pot and taking free cards allows you to minimize your losses and ensure you don’t get milked by your opponent’s monster hands. When you are the last to act, you get to see your opponents’ actions before you act, allowing you to fold your cards more often or find the “just call” instead of a raise on the river.

Playing out of position can be difficult to get the full value of your hand.

Playing out of position can be difficult to get the full value of your hand.

7. Getting the maximum value
When playing from out of position, it can often be difficult to get the full value for your hands, as your opponents utilize their position to stop you from doing so.

For example, imagine flopping a low set on an Ace-high board out of position. You check the flop to your opponent, they fire a c-bet, and you call to trap. On the turn, you check once again, and this time, they check back, denying you full value.

If the situation is reversed, and you call the flop c-bet in position, followed by a turn check, you can now bet for yourself, ensuring your opponent doesn’t see any free cards.

6. Closing the action
A great advantage of playing a poker hand in position is that you get to close the action for a particular betting street.

When playing from earlier positions, you will often be playing first or find yourself stuck between two players, one in position and one out of position to you.

However, if you hold the dealer button, you will always be the last to act. If you call a bet, you don’t have to worry about your opponent raising you. If you check the flop, the turn card will be dealt immediately. Being the one to close the action gives you many advantages and lets you completely control the flow of a poker hand, which is not possible when playing from earlier positions.

5. Bluffing later streets
The best bluffs in poker are not the ones that are executed on a single street, but the ones that are planned on the early streets and executed later in the hand.

Being in a position allows you to plan such multi-street bluffs more effectively. For example, if you flow a weak draw that’s unlikely to actually improve, your hand may not be good enough to call any flop bets out of position. Yet, if you are in position, you may decide to call the flop bet and turn the hand into a bluff on later streets if your opponent gives up on betting.

For example, if you flop a gutshot straight draw on a board with two diamonds, you can call the flop bet with the plan of turning the hand into a bluff anytime a diamond rolls off on the turn or the river.

4. Setting effective traps
If you have ever watched Phil Hellmuth play poker, you probably know that some of the best players around rely heavily on trapping their opponents with big hands. However, trapping doesn’t really work that well when you are out of position. Checking to your opponents allows them to take free cards and keep the pot small, neither of which is something you want to leave to chance.

However, when you are playing in position, you can set more effective traps before the flop and on the flop, as there is no danger of your opponent checking back the next street and denying you value.

3. Controlling the size of the pot
Pot control is another key function of a poker position. By being the last to act on every street, you gain far more flexibility in deciding how large the pot becomes.

When facing bets, you can choose to just call instead of raising with hands you’d rather take to a cheap showdown. When facing checks, you can decide whether to bet for value, apply pressure, or simply check back and keep the pot manageable. These decisions are much easier to make when you have full information from your opponents’ actions.

The same concept extends beyond a single hand and into overall bankroll management. Just as position helps you reduce unnecessary risk at the table, choosing the right games and incentives can help smooth out variance over time. If you also enjoy casino games alongside poker, the CoinCasino promo code can give you extra flexibility and additional initial capital.

On the other hand, when playing from out of position, you don’t have these luxuries. Your opponents always act last, making it easier for them to inflate the pot and put you in uncomfortable spots with marginal holdings.

2. Getting free cards
Being in position allows you to take free cards when you want to, especially when you have a drawing hand like a flush draw or a straight draw.

For example, if you are in position and your flop bet gets called, your opponent will typically check to you when the turn card is dealt, expecting you to bet again. At this point, you can choose which hands you want to bet with and keep the pressure on, and which ones you want to check back and realize your equity with.

Your opponent may not like you checking back, as they were planning to check-raise you, but they will no longer have the option of betting, which they would have if you were the first to act.

Position helps you narrow down ranges at minimal cost.

Position helps you narrow down ranges at minimal cost.

1. Narrowing your opponents’ ranges
One of the main reasons position is so important in poker is that it allows you to narrow down your opponents’ ranges at minimal cost. When you play a hand from out of position, you will not see your opponents act on any post-flop streets before you.

Each street that goes by without you seeing what your opponents do first is another street on which you receive no additional information about their hands.

When you play in position, on the other hand, you will get more information on every street, allowing you to narrow their range down before every bet or call you make.

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