I’m not sure how familiar you guys are with racing, but if you know anything about it at all, you know that position during the race is one of the most important factors for a driver to consider. It’s pretty similar when you’re playing a hand of poker. Your position determines what you can do, and not do in a given hand.

If you’re in first place, there’s no need to get way to excited and run all of your gas out, no need to show them how powerful your engine really is. You save that for when you’re ready to break away, usually near the end of the race and leave the other drivers wondering, “where the hell did that come from?” Again, you can say the same for a hand of poker. Consider it the element of surprise, and if you pull your big guns out only when you need to, consider it money in your stack, too.

So you’re wonderingperhaps you’re totally new to all of this, or perhaps you’re a veteran and you consider this a refresher courseyou’re wondering, what’s so special about table position. Well, first of all, it gives you choices. Sometimes this is good, and other times this is not, it depends on your hand. This is especially true in online poker Holdem.

And you’re saying, “WHAT!?” how can options be bad. Well, let’s say you have suited connectors, and you like playing suited connectors. Actually, you like playing them a lot, but you’re first to act. This is where having choices can be bad. You go into a hand making a bet on a J,10 suited, you have no idea what’s coming behind you. Most people don’t consider this to be a garbage hand, what with all the straight possibilities, the potential high flush, and a pretty decent strength hand if you pair it. Having to make a choice to play or not to play in first position makes you consider a whole range of possibilities. “How loose are the other people at the table?” “Do they call with garbage,” What will I do if poker player X calls? Person Y?