Out Of Position Poker

Floating means calling a bet with a weak hand and relying, at least partially, on making your opponent fold later in the hand to justify your play. If you have no fold equity later in the hand, you avoid floating; let’s get that clear before we go any further. Now onto the fun part.

• What Does It Mean To Be Out Of Position In Poker
• Out Of Position In Poker
• Poker Positions Explained
• Poker Playing Out Of Position
• Out Of Position Poker

I decided to lead out. Here's my thoughts - I'm not even thinking about the short stack at this point, they are almost irrelevant now. I figure the MP has a lot of broadways in their range, and there are a lot of cards on the turn that make playing this hand out of position very difficult (any 10, Q or Ace). A player 'has position' on opponents acting before him and is 'out of position' to opponents acting after him. Because players act in clockwise order, a player 'has position' on opponents seated to his right, except when the opponent has the button and certain cases.

Beginners are often lectured on the perils of calling bets out of position with weak holdings, but they’re never really advised as to when such a play is okay. In fact, much of poker’s instructive literature for new players is pretty patronising as it attempts to simplify the game into a long list of dos and don’ts, which are almost always too generalised to be accurate. Why can’t the new poker player learn when to call bad hands out of position to continuation bets? If we are very careful in making sure that we understand what it takes for such a call to be higher EV than folding, then we can add a positive new feature to our game.

The Dangers

Before I start recommending some adventurous uses of the call button, let’s begin by outlining why conventional beginner literature tries to keep new players in little boxes. The reason is simple – the gain you make by calling a flop c-bet with a weak hand from out of position is only minimal even when the play is correct. On the other hand, if you get it wrong and frequently call in bad spots, then you can do yourself a lot of harm. The mantra: do not play weak hands out of position, then, functions much like the safety guard on your razor. It’s there because your four-year old son is not trusted to avoid slicing himself on the thumb. According to the old mantras, you are not trusted to float c-bets out of position without destroying your EV; so, let me remove the training wheels and show you how to handle this tool safely.

Pot Odds and Floating

You defend the BB against a BU open and see a flop of K♠10♦6♣. Villain c-bets for one third of the pot. What are you going to do with your 9♥8♥? If you said fold, then you are still operating under the assumption that the training wheels are necessary. If you said raise, then you are getting a little carried away with a hand that very rarely turns anything strong and performs very badly in a big pot. The highest EV option here, if I can trust you not to go crazy on the next two streets, is to call; and it’s all to do with pot odds.

When Villain bets one third of the pot, he injects one unit into a pot that was already three units. You are, therefore investing one unit into four units, but when you’ve made that investment the pot will become five units. Therefore, your odds are 1/5 = 20%. This is how much of the pot you will need to be entitled to if you want to get your investment back. Your investment is one fifth of that new pot, so of course you only need a fifth of the pot to recoup it. If you are entitled to any more than a fifth, then that extra money goes straight into your pocket.

It’s not that we think we have the odds to chase our draw. In The Grinder’s Manual, my first book, I drew a very clear distinction between chasing and floating. The difference is that while chasing relies solely on hitting your hand and then possibly earning some extra bets, floating relies at least partially on getting Villain to fold later in some situations. How could this occur here?

Future Fold Equity

Villain is continuation-betting a board that is good for his range and most players will make this bet very frequently. Some will even neglect to build a checking range of any sort on this texture. Therefore, much of Villain’s range is comprised by air, which the average player will give up with quite often on the turn. When he gives up, we will have the option to lead the river and take the pot away. If all goes well, we won’t need to bluff the river because we’ll hit a straight that we can value bet, or we’ll bink a pair that we can simply take to showdown for free. Realistically though, we will miss many run-outs and must be prepared to fire the 9-high on the river when this happens. If Villain does bet a turn card that we miss, then we’ll simply fold. In those cases, we will have burned an extra bet, but that’s fine as long as 20% of the time we can get the pot.

The whole idea of making this flop call is centred around our future fold equity. I’ll make this clear again – we cannot call here if we plan to meekly check down a worthless hand the times that we miss. Some factors that guarantee a decent amount of future fold equity are the following:

• Villain is not a maniac
• Villain c-bets the flop a small and standard size (he doesn’t pot it)
• Villain is not all-in or close to all-in on the flop

If these things are true then calling a hand that has some equity and implied odds (meaning that we can win extra money if we hit our straight) is probably worth an investment as long as we do not ruin our EV by raising a turn bet or by checking down 9-high on the river. If your plan is solid here, then you should meet that 20% pot entitlement target for the float play to be okay.

Summary

• Floating the flop is different to just chasing a draw as we expect to benefit from making Villain fold later on in the hand at least some of the time.
• Floating the flop out of position is best against small bets as you need to win less often to call profitably.
• Floating the flop out of position demands that you turn your hand into a bluff in some situations later in the hand.
• Do not float the flop out of position with a poor hand vs. players who are very aggressive or have strong c-bet ranges.

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Playing out of position is one of the most difficult things
to do in poker. Sure, you can still make big hands, but they are
going to be much more challenging to play than when you are in
position. Playing in position is one skill set that was largely
brought to light in the more recent years of poker. Though older
players surely knew that position was valuable, only recently
have many realized that even weak hands can be quite profitable
if they are played in position. You can do so many things in
position that you just can’t do when you are first to act.

With all of this being said, however, playing out of position isn’t
something that you should totally abandon. There’s plenty of
value in it if you know what you are doing. It’s not going to
be the most comfortable way to play poker, but this doesn’t mean
that it can’t be profitable.

Out of position play isn’t something that you can really
choose. While you do have the ability to fold any hand that you
would like, it isn’t going to be logical to muck pocket aces
simply because you are under the gun. You’ll need to adapt to
the circumstances and find a way to play the hand to the best of
your ability. This could mean varying your raise sizes, playing
differently post-flop, or one of many other things. The simple
point is that playing out of position isn’t something that can
or should be avoided.

Of course, if you have a weak hand, your
position could decide whether it’s worth playing, but this
isn’t to say that all strong hands are completely devalued by
position. Poker is all about making the best out of the
situation that is put in front of you, and this is exactly what
it comes down to when playing out of position.

Weak Hands Out of Position

Weak hands tend to be the most straightforward in terms of
execution whether you are sitting in early, middle, or late
position. While there’s going to be some value in mixing it up
and making plays in late position from time to time with weak
hands, it just isn’t going to make sense when you are out of
position. The reason that you can make steal and re-steal
attempts from late position is found in your post-flop
advantage. You are playing the player while almost ignoring the
hand itself. In early position you aren’t going to have this
luxury. Don’t mess around with weak hands when you are out of
position, it’s really that simple.

Mediocre Hands Out of Position

Mediocre hands can be a bit tricky to play no matter where
you are seated, and early position is only going to complicate
things even further. The best move in this spot is to analyze
what’s going on. Are you at a table where
suited connector type hands have value post-flop? Can you
afford to limp and call a raise? These are the types of things
that you’ll need to consider with middle of the road hands
when playing out of position.

For the most part, raises are going to be out of the question
with mediocre hands in this spot. If you have a suited connector
type hand and want to get involved, the most optimal line will
usually be to limp in and hope to either play a limped pot or to
call a raise and see a flop. By raising in early position with a
moderately strong hand, you are going to be hurting yourself no
matter what.

Unless you can get few callers and fire a
continuation bet with success, a raise is going to be punished
by callers who are in position or by re-raisers who put the
pressure back on you. The most basic approach in this situation
is to look for ways to minimize your risk wherever possible. You
don’t want to be unnecessarily inflating pots when you don’t
have a big hand and you aren’t in great position for post-flop
play.

What Does It Mean To Be Out Of Position In Poker

Strong Hands Out of Position

Out Of Position In Poker

A strong hand is a strong hand no matter how you look at it.
The types of hands that would fall into this category include
big pocket pairs, AQ/AK and so on and so forth. You shouldn’t be
mucking these hands for just about any reason, whether you are
last to act or first to act. With all of that said, it’s safe
to say that your strategy is going to be slightly altered. You
are going to be coming in for a raise, but a raise in early
position shouldn’t be the same as it would be in late position.

Poker Positions Explained

Think about what happens when you either open or re-raise in
late position with one of these hands. You’ll already see who
you are isolating, you have position, and you are essentially in
full control of the hand. To compensate for the lack of all of
this when out of position, your easiest move will be to increase
your bet sizes. Larger raises will thin out the field. You don’t
want everyone to fold, but you don’t want five callers either.

Poker Playing Out Of Position

Out Of Position Poker

The real issues with these hands are going to develop after
the flop is dealt. It’s not that hard to make a larger raise in
an attempt to weed out the field, but it will be difficult to
remain deceptive if you are firing out massive bets on every
street. You’ll need to create new ways to be tricky in your
approach while also ensuring that you are getting value out of
your big hands. This is going to be subject to each hand that
you are playing and will vary from spot to spot, but it’s
something to keep in mind. You always want to be confusing your
opponents as much as possible, but be sure that you aren’t
digging yourself into a hole for the other players to take
advantage of.