Weak Holdings Out Of Position

Marcus Bateman / Marcus Bateman / 06 August 2009 / Leave a Comment

Instead of looking just to call in position often, try and reduce the number of hands that you play out of position, but play the ones you do much more aggressively.

This lethal combination of factors probably busts more players than any other. Weak players consistently play weak hands out of position, and although neither of these factors is necessarily bad in isolation, combined it is a recipe for total disaster.

In poker it is frequently correct to play weak hands, such as when attacking the blinds from the button; and it is frequently correct to play out of position, such as defending a decent percentage of hands from the big blind when playing heads up to avoid being blinded away. However, consistently combining these two factors can seriously decimate your bankroll over the long run.

A particularly good example of this is players who defend their blinds too much in no limit and pot limit games. It is simply impossible to win consistently if you habitually play weak holdings from the blinds in these games. You will always be out of position, against an in position pre flop raiser, with a hand that will not only miss the flop most times, but even when it hits may well be dominated and end up costing you everything anyway.

Players who call from the blinds too much are some of the easiest opponents to beat in poker, simply because they are swimming up stream in not just one way, but two. Although it is very tempting to look down at a weak hand in the blinds, reason that you already have a bit of money invested in the pot through the blind, and throw your chips in and call, over the long run it is a huge leak that will lose you a fortune. Most players do not fully understand the long term effects of playing like this, and although on any given session they may well hit a few flops and profit for the session, over the year they are leaking money constantly playing like this.

Instead of looking just to call in position often, try and reduce the number of hands that you play out of position, but play the ones you do much more aggressively. If you cut down the number of hands you play out of position, but re-raise the ones you do, you make your opponent's life much harder, especially if you balance the mix of strong and weak hands that you re-raise with well.

Always remember that consistently playing weak holdings when out of position is a true recipe for disaster - you simply cannot fight these two factors at once, and you forget this at your peril.