Poker table positions: UTG, HJ, CO, button and blinds

Your position is where you sit at the table relative to the button, and it decides the order in which you act. It's what most affects how many hands you can play: whoever acts later sees what the others do first, and that information is worth money on every street.

The 6-player table (6-max)

• UTG (under the gun): the first to act before the flop. With five players behind, it plays the strongest hands.
• HJ (hijack) and CO (cutoff): the middle and late positions. The fewer players left to act, the more hands you can open.
• BTN (the button, or dealer): the best position. After the flop it always acts last.
• SB and BB (small blind and big blind): they post the forced bets and act first after the flop. They're the only positions that lose money in the long run, even for the best players.

The 9-player table (full ring)

In full ring there are three earlier positions (UTG, UTG+1 and UTG+2) before the LJ (lojack). From the LJ on, everything works like 6-max: the full ring LJ has the same five players behind it as 6-max UTG.

Why position is worth money

Acting last gives you three advantages:

1. Information: you see whether your opponent checks or bets before you decide.
2. Pot control: you can check behind to see a free card, or bet when your opponent shows weakness.
3. Cheaper bluffs: when your opponent checks twice, one bet is often enough.

That's why ranges widen from the inside out: very few hands from UTG and many more on the button.

How many hands to open from each position

The reference range Flopmortem uses to judge your opens when nobody has entered before you:

In full ring, the early positions are even stricter:

You can see which hands they are in the guide to opening ranges. Flopmortem breaks your results down position by position, with their margin of error, so you can see where you win and where you lose.