Playing Hands When Out of Position

Some policies to follow

Position is extremely important in no-limit hold'em, especially when the money is deep. With deep stacks, as in the typical money game, the turn and river betting rounds will be in play, and the pot may be quite large. Strong money players have a deep distaste for bad position and often will throw away hands with which a lesser player would gamble. Still, certain hands need to be played without position, as folding them would be giving up too much equity. Here are some policies that many strong players follow when out of position (OOP):

1. Avoid playing connectors. Bad position is easier to cope with when you have a fine hand. For example, a hand like pocket sixes normally will be in there to try to flop a set; no set on the flop, then adios. Flop a set, and one of your options is to simply keep firing until they either fall back or go broke. You can play simple poker, if you wish. On the other hand, connectors usually flop only four-fifths of a hand, not a complete holding. You seldom get the right pot odds to draw to a straight or flush. Your equity comes from things like getting a free card, robbing your opponent when a scare card comes, or getting paid off when you hit. All three of these things are much easier to come by when you have position on your opponent.

2. Overbet the pot size preflop. You should be happy to win what is already in the pot when you raise preflop when OOP, even when you have a strong hand like a big pair. Yes, I know you like action when you have a big pair, but beware of letting your opponent in cheap when you have a good hand, because he may break you if he outflops those two kings. At the least, make him pay through the nose for the privilege of taking a shot at your whole stack. Let's look at some typical situations when deciding how much to raise:

A. You are playing in a money game that has blinds of $5-$10 and everyone has around $1,000 or more in chips. You are in the small blind with pocket queens. Three players call the blind; how much should you raise? Here are my comments on your options. If you make the wager $50 more ($60 straight), you are raising exactly the size of the pot. This is an inadequate amount. Let's suppose the big blind folds but the under-the-gun player calls, bringing in the other two players. There is now $250 in the pot (four players at $60 apiece, plus $10 from the big blind). If you flop an overpair and make a pot-size bet, and one person calls, you have only one more barrel, because there will be $750 in the pot and $750 in your stack. In other words, you probably will go broke if you do not hold the best hand here. I would prefer to make it $70, $80, or even $90 straight, rather than only $60. You should charge a steep price for giving an opponent the opportunity of winning all of your chips. I would have these same thoughts when holding kings or aces, as well.

B. You are in the small blind and everyone folds. You have a decent playing hand and are now heads up, so you raise. How much should you raise? A pot-size raise is tripling the big blind. Since you are out of position and would not mind winning it right there, why make him an offer he can't refuse? I suggest that you spend a little extra and quadruple the big blind, rather than triple it. The added chance of winning without a fight is money well-spent. If you have the typical raising hand in that spot, you are looking at something like A-X suited, 10-9 suited, two sixes, or K-J offsuit. Do you really think winning the pot right there is of inferior value to playing on while out of position? I think not.

3. An awkward situation is holding a hand in one of the blinds that looks pretty decent, such as A-Q suited or pocket tens. Let's suppose the button is a fairly aggressive player and he open-raises; what should you do? I would not consider folding such a nice hand to a button open-raise. For me, the question is whether to reraise or just call. (From our previous conversation, you know that if you choose to reraise, you should overbet the pot size.) With the A-Q suited, I probably would just call, since hitting a flop of top pair or better probably will enable me to make some money, and I will hit about a third of the time. (We are assuming the money is deep, since a chip situation in which I can get all in without a huge overbet of the pot size would make that the clear choice.) However, the tens are harder to handle, since they improve only about one time out of eight. Also, they seldom are an overpair to the board on the flop, and may not win even if they do emerge as an overpair. I prefer to reraise a late-position open-raise with a decent-size pocket pair in one of the blinds, as opposed to calling and playing while out of position with no idea of what the opponent has. Again, I am following the philosophy of giving my opponent a decent opportunity to fold when I am out of position.

I follow the same philosophy of giving my opponent an opportunity to fold in post-flop situations. Let's suppose a player open-raises from early position and I call from the big blind while holding pocket tens. (I would not reraise an early-position open-raiser with this kind of hand, even though I often reraise a late-position open-raiser. In poker, bully the weak and beware of the strong.) If I get a ragged flop like 8-6-3, I will bet right out. Check-call is not part of my strategy when there are lots of overcards to harm my hand. Some opponents try to muscle you when you lead into them. But anyone who knows how I play has to take into account the possibility of my holding a good hand, like a set, when I bet into the preflop raiser, since I rarely check-raise with such a hand.

You may not agree with all of my suggested treatments of specific hands in this column, but you should share my reluctance to play hands while out of position when I could give my opponent the opportunity to make a graceful exit. If you think you can outplay your opponent without position, you are lucky to be up against a prize donkey. Or, maybe you are the prize donkey, one who undervalues the element of position with deep stacks in no-limit betting, and overrates his own ability.