Position is a crucial factor that not taken seriously enough by many beginner poker players. Every beginners guide book address this topic, apparently not enough to provide players the right tools how to apply it in practice without taking into account that it's influence on your winnings. "Tip of the Week" will clarify it, how to spot "position", how to use it and integrate it into your play; now, if someone say to you "I've got a position on you" or "I hate getting this hand in early position" you'll know what he means.

The early position which circled in yellow consists of the three players who sit to the left of the "Button" in the next order: Small blind (SB), Big blind (BB) "Under the gun" (UTG). These seats considers to be the worst position in poker, since on any given round you're among  the first ones to act without any information on your opponents and how they are going to act (bet, raise, fold…) at each round. EP players should be careful and selective about their playing hand and bet only with premium hands, because in this position you can only trust on your high cards not on your bluffs.

Right after the Small blind and the big blind the first to act is the player next to their left - the "Under The Gun", this nickname given to him due to the fact that he is forced to start the action, any choices besides "Fold".

In most cases being in EP considers to a disadvantage since you'll always be the first to bet a round i.e. that your opponents will always be able to respond to you only after you have taken an action. through a pink glasses filter it's seems even as an advantage, because quality opponents sometimes tend to disturb or take advantage of your play when in fact they can simply wait to see how you act first.

The middle position which circled in red consists of the three players who sit to the left of the early position. When you're in MP you get to see the action of the EP players, but you still haven’t seen the moves of the late position players left behind you. Therefore, middle position it's as it sound, its have advantages and disadvantages; which lead us to the next term which called the "squeeze play".

The squeeze effect is when you encounter a complicated situation, as you are trying to call a bet after a player in EP, once they got raised or have the slight chance of being raised by late position player. This is an unsafe situation since your goal is to slow down the "pace of raise" when you are holding low card or you're worried about the moves of your LP's opponents, whom left to act behind you, whereas the EP player is too aggressive or hold a significant hand himself and it's oblige you to give up on more chips for the pot.

The good side of being in MP is that you're in the best location to bluff online since you've already saw the acts of the EP's players and have a few hands to go a head of you.

The last positions which circled in blue includes the three players who sit next to the left of the middle position players. In this position there're two most significant players that are last to act in around; the Cut off (CO) - who is the second to act before the end of the round; the "Button" (B) - who is the last person to act in the round. We're going to discuss about them shortly.

Late position seats are the best to sit at; since you're among the last player, if not the last to end the action, as a result you have a lot of information about the players' moves as you've seen how most of the players decided to play their cards. Late position players, many times encounter a situation when no one had bet in a round – this situation called "betting position"; the LP's players have the chance to call a bet as a bluff in order to win the pot.

Another unique situation when being late position is the semi-bluff. The semi-bluff - is raising a player who bet out in early or middle position and you have the option of improving later in the hand, such as a straight or flush. This strategy influences on two different fields:
1) when you're raising out of hope to scare your opponent and eventually to make him fold,      particularly if he or she holds on a minor hand from the start.
2) Causing your opponent to fail himself on his act and "check" to you on the round by calling      to your "raise" on the flop.

Your opponent's "check" enables you to bet once more and try another semi-bluff or just "check" after your opponent and to hope for another hand. A semi-bluff that ends with a check in a round is well-known as the "free card" move, given the fact that you're able to watch the river card "on the house", when actuality, you pay for one extra small bet on the flop with the raise for being able to see the river card by checking the turn.

The "Cut-off" - as we explained earlier, is the player to the right of the button. This seat named "Cut-off" since that position frequently "cuts off" the dealer's ability to steal blinds by betting. Therefore, it considers as the second best seat to play at.

The "button" -the Button function defined as the "dealer" (the small white button with the "D" on it) theoretically, since in online poker online poker the dealing is done automatically by the computer, when in fact it function as any other active seat. This symbolic roll of the dealer is to determine at the beginning of each hand who is the small–blind and who will be the big-blind (in this order, left to the button) by moving clockwise from one player to the next. The "Button" is the most wanted seat at the table, since he is the last one to act in the round of betting and of course, like the Cut-off and even more useful position for stealing the blinds as there're no players to act behind you.

After we've discussed the 3 positions (early, middle and late), emerge the question –how do you apply the information given above on your play?

First you always have to pay close attention to your particular position at the table. It's pretty easy to overlook this remark since, most of the time you will be so concentrate on how you're going to mange your hand that you will fail to remember how position can effect significantly on your particular hand.

For instance: you are playing a $1/2 limit Texas Hold'em and you're holding T9s (Ten and Nine of the same suit). You placed in EP and you are UTG (under the gun) and you can't make your mind whether you should act with the current hand or not. The vast majority of the beginner won't be so sure about their card and whether they should stay in it or not, when in fact the solution pinned on how you integrate you're starting hand with position.

In the given case, a hand like T9s fits well when playing in a full table, since it's a drawing hand that based on pot odds then making people to fold. Due to that, you're able to understand that T9s is a good combination and you can make a call without any concern after a taken action, rather than bet significantly and make your own action. Therefore, T9s is a hand that works well in LP, since you can play with these cards without worry or you can fold because you can see all the action before it come up to you. However, being UTG in addition that you sit in early position - now you should recognize that this hand is risky to play with in EP and as a result to fold with at the pre-flop.

It's important to remember this guideline - early position obliges you to play with significant hands, whereas late position enables you to play with less significant hands.