Early, Middle, and Late
In Poker Lingo
10 December 2004
By Mark Pilarski
Dear Mark,
You briefly mentioned in a past column the
importance of position in Texas Hold'em. What
did you mean by that? Dale O.
What position is NOT, Dale, is your bun warming
seat assignment in a game. Position refers to
your place at the table relative to other
players who are active in a particular pot. The
early positions in an eight-handed game like
Texas Hold'em are the first three players to act
on their hands; the middle positions would be
the next three, and the late positions are the
last two. Late position is the superior position
for you, since you have the advantage of knowing
what your opponents have done. Unless game rules
force you to act first, you always have position
over anyone sitting immediately to your right,
since you act on your hand after the player to
your right takes action, quite likely giving you
useful information.
.
Also, Dale, you will hear announcers on the
World Poker Tour confide that a player just made
a position bet. What he means is that a player
made a wager more on the strength of his
position than on the strength of his hand. Many
players, myself included, are more liberal about
the hands they will play from a late position.
For example, a pair of deuces or a suited
Ace/deuce as a starter hand in Texas Hold'em
would warrant some action in late position. Yet,
if I were in early position, and though the hand
initially looked appealing, I generally wouldn't
play it.
Dear Mark,
Please settle a dispute I have with my wife. In
video poker, which start-up hand is more
valuable, one with an ace or one with a jack? My
wife believes neither as you get your money back
with either once paired up. I believe the jack
is because you can make more paying hands with
it. Also, what about two aces versus two jacks
as a starter hand? Steve S.
In Jacks-or-better video poker, Steve, a lone
Jack is worth more than an Ace. True, paired up
after the draw they are hands of equal value,
but thinking of straights and straight flushes,
a Jack is a better starter card than an Ace. The
Jack can be part of a 7-8-9-10-J; or 8-9-10-J-Q;
or a 9-10-J-Q-K, straight flush, whereas, other
than sharing a mutual royal flush, the only
other straight flush an Ace can make is an
Ace-2-3-4-5. The same reasoning applies for
straights.
By and large, two Jacks as starters are worth
exactly the same as two Aces in Jacks-or-better
video poker. Both hands return your money if you
draw no supporting cards. The same value holds
true for three Jacks versus Three aces, and a
four-of-a-kind for either hand. However, video
poker also offers various "Bonus" games where
four Aces pay quite a bit more than four Jacks
do. On these bonus games, a pair of Aces would
definitely be worth more than two Jacks.
Dear Mark,
I have played video poker for a long time,
successfully I might add, but one hand keeps
hexing me. Anytime I get threeofakind with a
need to draw two cards, I rarely get a full
house or a fourofakind. I figure the odds of
getting either hand are not overwhelming, but I
was wondering what they actually were. Calvin H.
Cursed or not, Calvin, drawing to a full house
or a four-of-a-kind should happen more often
than once in a blue moon. In your case, when you
discard the two cards of little value, for
instance, you keep three aces and throw away a
nine of diamonds and a five of clubs, odds are
you will improve your hand to either to a full
house or four aces 10.4% of the time.
Gambling quote of the week: "You've seen my
horses. They only need a driver who is worthy of
them." Lew Wallace, Ben Hur (1880)
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