No Limit: Playing From the Button

    In no limit hold’em, there is no more powerful position that you can have than the button. You have no money invested in preflop, aside from possibly the ante, and postflop, you get the benefit of acting last on every round of betting, meaning your opponents are forced to make all their actions before you get to react to them, whether it be a round of checks or a bet and a raise all-in. Whatever the case, many players simply consider themselves lucky to be the button and never think to use it as a weapon or tool in their play, and this is a grave error; you will be generating more profit from the button than any other position you play at in any style of hold’em, so long as you understand what the button can allow you to get away with.

    Take this, for example. You’re sitting with a playable stack of t14,000 in a tournament on Cake Poker (no doubt with the best Cake Poker rakeback deal), with the blinds currently at t50/t100. A solid, aggressive player with t17,000 opens to t325 from the hijack, and you flat on the button with AJc. The flop is Qc6h4c, giving you an overcard and the nut flush draw, a powerful draw with up to 12 outs against a hand like KK or KQ. Your opponent leads out t500 into the t800 pot. With the button, a number of different plays are available to you, now that you have the added information that your opponent liked the flop enough to lead into you. You can just flat call the bet and take a turn card to attempt to peel your big draw. You can raise small, to something like t1,300, which may make him fold hands like AK or 77 or slow down with hands like QJ or 1010. When you make this play, you will likely freeze him up on the turn, forcing him to check to you and allowing you to check and take a free card if you miss, or fire a second barrel if you hit or feel like it can take the pot away from him.

    If you were the small blind instead of the button, however, your play here would be completely different; can you lead out here? Or go for a check-raise? The check-raise on this flop is a lot more polarizing than simply raising a continuation bettor; your hand looks less like a made hand and more like a drawing type of hand on such a coordinated board; he can easily put you on hands like 75, 35, A5c, any flush draw, and bad queens, and may choose to make a huge three bet to blow you off the hand. Being out of position also makes it more difficult for you if you make your hand on the turn or river; you have to choose to either lead out at the now scary board, or go for a trap that, after the flop action, will be very hard to pull off. With the button, you can manipulate the pot and make your actions much less threatening, meaning your payoff in the hand will be much greater in the long run.