Poker is a game where there is a big advantage in acting last and a big disadvantage to acting first. The seat position you are in at the poker table determines when you’ll act. In Texas Hold’em, position is king . Let’s take a look about what it means to be in position in poker.

There are two related meanings of the term position in poker.

The first meaning relates to when it’s your turn to act. Whoever is in position (IP) will act last. Whoever is out-of-position (OOP) will act first. The second meaning relates to where you are sat at the poker table.

Each table position has its own name, and is determined by where it is relative to the Dealer Button. The seats are grouped into Early, Middle and Late positions. The Dealer Button moves clockwise around the table after each hand, so each player gets to sit in each table position once per orbit.

The names of the poker positions and whether they are considered Early, Middle or Late position seats depends on: 1) whether you are playing 6-Max or Full Ring and 2) personal opinion. You will find a lot of different ways people divide up the positions, especially with Full Ring.

Don’t worry too much about it. What is most important is the seat’s position relative to the Dealer Button.

Table position is more of a spectrum than a black-and-white set of distinct categories — going anti-clockwise, the further you are away from the Dealer Button, the worse your position is. Being “on the button” is the best poker position of all.

The Dealer Button

The Dealer Button could be called the money button, because it is the most profitable spot at the poker table. Whoever has the Dealer Button will always be in position post-flop, and only has the Blinds to act after them pre-flop.

This means that if everyone around the table folds, the Dealer Button can raise knowing they will have position post-flop — even if the Blinds call. No other position at the table has this advantage.

The Blinds

Directly to the left of the Dealer Button is the Small Blind, and then on the left of the Small Blind is the Big Blind.

The Blinds are the worst positions in the game. They must make a forced bet before seeing their cards and they have to act first post-flop. Acting last pre-flop doesn’t make up for this.

Of the two positions, the Small Blind is the worst. You are only forced to pay half as much as the Big Blind, but you don’t act last pre-flop and always act first post-flop.

Early Position

The seat to the left of the Big Blind is known as “Under-the-Gun” or UTG.

This is because this player must act first pre-flop. Post-flop they will act before everyone except the Blinds. This combination of factors makes it a difficult position to play and so the basic Under-the-Gun poker strategy is to be cautious and keep it tight.

In Six-Max Hold’em, UTG is the only player considered early position. In Full-Ring (that is 9 players), there are usually understood to be at least two players: UTG and UTG+1 (the player directly to the left of UTG).

You will find some people that treat the first three seats to the left of the Big Blind as being early position though.

The Blinds can also be considered a part of Early Position as they act first post-flop — although they act last pre-flop.

Middle Position

Middle Position consists of the kind of neither here-nor-there seats at the poker table. As with Early Position, 6-Max has only one seat that’s considered middle position — usually referred to as Middle Position, but sometimes as the Hijack.

With Full-ring it is generally accepted to be the two seats in between UTG+1 and the Hijack (the seat two places to the right of the Dealer Button). These are generally known as the Lojack and Middle Position.

You can loosen up a bit in Middle Position compared to Early Position — but you still need to keep it fairly tight.

Late Position

Late Position seats are the best seats at the poker table. In Six-Max, that’s the Cut-Off and the Dealer Button. Full Ring, it’s those two plus the Hijack — the seat next to the Cut-Off going anti-clockwise.

Again, it’s important to look at table position as a spectrum. The Dealer Button is by far the best late position, with the Cut-off being slightly worse and the Hijack slightly worse still. Some people consider the Hijack to be a Middle Position seat.

Really what matters is how many players are left to act after you pre-flop — the more there are, the more likely someone will have a good hand. If anybody after you — other than the Blinds — get involved, then they will have position on you post-flop.