Strong
Hand, Bettor to the Left
Another significant advantage to last position is
that when you make a strong hand, you have more opportunity
to win a big pot. You can sit there innocently with
your monster hand and let the bettor to your left
drive the other players around to you. That opponent
bets, two or three players ahead of you call, and
now bang, you raise. You get at least a single bet
from opponents who fold after you raise, and you get
a double bet from those who call. You're also making
it more expensive for them to try to draw out on you
when there are more cards to come. (Notice, in this
situation, the problems faced by players in first
and middle positions. Those callers in the middle
always risk a raise from a player behind them.)
Strong Hand, Bettor
to the Right
If you had the same strong hand but the bettor were
to your right, you would not be able to play the
hand in the same way. If you raised, you would be
requiring players behind you to call a double bet
to continue. Thus, you'd get fewer callers (if any)
than you would if you raised in last position after
they had committed themselves by calling the first
bet. On the other hand, by just calling in first
position, the best you can hope for is to collect
some single bets from players behind you. At the
same time, when there are more cards to come, you're
making it relatively cheap for the callers to draw
out on you. So with more cards to come, you have
to decide whether your hand can stand competition
or whether you should raise to drive players out.
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