Position

Ask any poker pro what the most important aspect of poker is and 90% will answer you with the word position!

Early position is usually defined as the first three players to act after the blinds; this is a very difficult position to master. Playing from this position should be done with caution; you are the first to act after flop, leaving you with tricky decision's to make. When in early position carefully choose when and what to play in this position.

Middle position

Middle position is usually defined as the next three players after the three players in early position. There are worse positions to be in then middle position, and in a heads up pot with any player in early position you will be acting last. Beware of players in late position when in middle position, the last thing you want is to try and steal the blinds and be called, leaving you heads up, acting first which is not a good position to be in!

Late position

Late position is usually defined as the last two players before the blinds. Players in late position have the advantage of knowing how many people are in a pot, thus being able to play more hands when there are less people in cheap pots. In this position you act very late on, so you can raise when you sense weakness an example being, the pot being checked round to you, after a pre-flop raise.

In the blinds

The blinds have the advantage of playing a wide range of hands as they have already contributed to the pot. If players have only called the blinds, the big blind essentially receives a "free flop", whilst the small blind gets a look at the flop for only half the cost. Many players tend to fall into the trap of calling minimum raises from the big blind as they feel they have already committed some chips, this is not a good play, as you will be acting first after the flop. Remember not to fall in love with cards dealt to you on the blinds!

Now that you understand the principles of positions in poker, we advice you to memorize the recommended hands to play, when you find yourself sitting in a certain position.

You will fold all other pocket cards during the first three blind levels! While this may seem overly conservative or even cowardly I strongly recommend that you stick to the table strictly in your early SNG career. To quote myself: "Wanting to be a winning SNG player in the long term we will have to make it our primary goal to be among the remaining last 3 players on the table." We haven't gained anything finding ourselves in an all-in situation with AQ and 8 remaining players on the table when an opposing player shows us his AK and takes us off the table. In a tournament your goal is to survive. Don't let the fact that someone at the table already doubled his stack change your playing style. In the very next tournament this player might exit very early thanks to his playing style.