Having another strong player at Texas Hold’em hold superior position over you robs you of many plays that you can make. For instance, you will have to be far more selective about attacking the blinds from the cut-off. Also if a weaker player limps in and you raise to try and isolate against them then a strong player may re-raise you simply because they are aware of what you are doing.

You ideally want this player on your right so the effect of their skill and playing strength is severely blunted by you having superior position over them. In this game I had my name on the waiting list as there were two players who I wanted to play with. This potentially made for a very good poker game but the first seat that came up was to the immediate right of a player who I knew to be strong so I simply declined the seat. There was no one else on the waiting list so I simply waited for another opportunity.

Less than ten minutes later and someone else left the table and I got precisely the seat that I wanted which was to the immediate left of the strong player. I was dealt the 9s-6d on the very next orbit.

I was on the button and open raised to $60 and took the pot without a contest. A pretty uninspiring pot but the fact is that this hand was manufactured by the fact that I now had better position on the strong player and this hand could have been played the same way in a poker tournament as well. The blinds were pretty tight and had smallish stacks so I knew that these two players were not going to go around skating on very thin ice with marginal hands and a steal raise would stand a very good chance of taking down the pot.

I would have made this exact same play from the cut-off if I could depend on the player to my left not getting involved but that was not the case here. I may have only won $30 but this could easily have led to a far more profitable situation cropping up all because I had the patience to wait for a better seat.

Of course, you don’t always have the option of knowing the players on your table. But this game had a 100BB maximum buy in as do most no limit holdem games online. What this means is that if you see a player in a $10-$20 game sitting there with $4500 then you know that he has won that money and not sat down with that amount.

They could have simply got lucky as many players do in poker of course but they could also have won that money by skilful play and being superior to their opposition. I think that what this means is that it can be dodgy to concede position to big stacks because you may just be conceding position to a very good player.

If this was the only table that was available then rather than just jump in and sit down, I would be more inclined to sit and watch this player to try and ascertain their playing strength.

Believe me when I say that such decisions can make or break your career as a poker player and are not to be taken lightly.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson
Author – “Winning Cash Game Poker”

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