Poker Strategies
After receiving pocket cards, you are immediately faced with a choice: play your cards and either raise or call the blinds, or fold.
Practice Matters
Why are playing positions so important
Why are playing positions so important in standard Draw? Here is my analysis. First, let's take the draw. If you open as the leader (first position) or in other early positions, you are subjecting yourself to one or more possible raises by players seated in the middle or late positions. The earlier your position, the more risk you are taking, especially should you be holding just a pair of openers. You probably would have checked your pair of openers if you suspected that one or more strong opening hands were lurking in the middle or late positions. After one or more raises, you'll probably fold your pair of openers, giving up your ante and opening bet without drawing cards.
To help minimize these early positional disadvantages
To help minimize these early positional disadvantages in Draw, I submit the following recommendations. If there are five or fewer players in the game, there is no point to sandbagging, since you run the risk that the pot will be passed out. However, in an eight- or nine-handed game sandbagging may prove to be profitable for the first, second, or even the third person to act. True, the hand may be passed out, but the chances of this happening are considerably less than in a five-or-fewer-handed game.