The Money Seat – Playing the Button
At this point, you should already have an idea of how important position is when playing poker, and you should know that the Button is the very best position on the table. When you are On the Button, you get to act last, after everyone else has already given you some information about their hands based on their actions. It's the money seat, so let's look at how you should play when you are On the Button.
The Button
In the Old (and not so old) West, when people were playing poker, each player would take turns as the dealer, so that no one player was dealing and doing anything suspicious with the cards. The player who was the dealer always acted last. Nowadays, modern casinos have house dealers who don't play and online poker rooms have automated dealers. But the concept of the rotating dealer remains in the form of a plastic button which moves clockwise around the table, indicating who the "dealer" for that hand is.
Playing the Button
Nowadays it is pretty common for the player on the button to raise nearly every hand; and it's almost a certainty when all the other players have folded, and only the button and the two blinds remain. The blinds already have money in the pot, but could have any possible hand, and the likelihood that they have a great hand is fairly low, so a raise into them is usually a good idea.
Though, as with all the other strategies here, you should adjust your play based on your opponents. If the two players to your left, who are the blinds when you are on the button, are exceptionally tight players, you can raise even more money and more often and hope to steal their blinds. After you've taken enough of their money, they might try to fight back with re-raises or differing strategies post-flop. In these cases, sometimes the best course of action is to simply fold and let them cool down a few hands before hammering them with raises again. It's better to fold and lose a few hands to these players every now and then than to get into a raising war and lose a huge hand if they hit something.
Likewise, if the opponents in the blinds happen to be aggressive, fast players, you might want to tone down your raising a bit, and only concentrate on playing better hands. Eventually you will catch them with a better hand, and your late table position will allow you to really exploit them.
Going Fishing
We already talked about playing against a tight player, but just because a player is tight doesn't necessarily make them incompetent. But a fish is incompetent, he or she plays a lot of hands, always hoping to hit a great hand and score a huge pot. When you raise on the button, it doesn't really matter to them, they are calling anything and everything. What a great time to raise even more!
You are the final player to act every betting round, take advantage of the information you can learn. Watch the way the fish plays after each street and adjust to their play. Often time Cbets after the flop are good enough to drive the fish out, making your large pre-flop raise even more profitable. Playing against a big fish is so profitable that you'll see players re-raising each other before the flop, just to try to get heads up against the fish.
3-bets and Resistance
Unfortunately, not all players can be incompetent, beginners, or fish. After a pretty short amount of time, even half-way decent players will pick up the pattern of regular button raises and respond with 3-bets as a way of fighting back.
Remember, a 3-bet is simply the name for the second raise pre-flop. The big blind counts as the first bet, the first raise is the second bet, and the second raise is the third bet. You may also see a third raise, called a 4-bet. You may see more raises, but it's pretty rare as someone is usually all-in by this point.
Of course, this sets up a new pattern where every time you raise on the button, and they respond with a 3-bet. You can now predict this, and only raise for value when you have a good hand. If you know the 3-bet is coming, make sure you have a good hand and an idea of what to do with it.
You could of course call the 3-bet, but then you should realize that the player who has made the 3-bet has seized control of the hand, and will more often than not hit you with a Cbet after the flop.
Or, you could counter with a 4-bet of your own. This is an option to be used sparingly, if ever. You want to be careful about this because you now have a lot of money in the pot before the flop, and you could be out a lot of money in a short amount of time. You should really only respond with a 4-bet if you happen to have a monster hand like AA, or just one time against an aggressive 3-bettor to show that you aren't afraid of him (though still have a good hand when you do this, TT or better). Otherwise, take it easier and find some less risky ways to make money.
Starting Hands
You have the freedom to play a few more starting hands that you normally would on the button, due to the advantage of position. Here are the hands that are good raising hands:
● Any pocket pair
● Ace and 8 or higher (offsuit)
● King and 9 or higher (offsuit)
● Queen and 9, T, or J (offsuit)
● Jack and 9 or T (offsuit)
● Connectors starting with 89 or higher (offsuit)
● Connectors starting with 45 or higher (suited)
● One-gaps starting with 64 or higher (suited)
● Two-gaps starting with 96 or higher (suited)
● Three-gaps starting with T6 or higher (suited)
● King and 8 or higher (suited)
● Ace and 2 or higher (suited)
The Moneymaker
Playing at lower stakes, it is fairly easy to stick to these rules and play the button effectively, as most players are not good enough or don't pay enough attention to deal with these strategies. But the higher stakes you play, the better your opponents get (usually), and the more you need to adjust to their styles of play. Most of the action usually involves the player on the button, and if you can play it well and intimidate your opponents, you have taken a big step towards making money as a poker player.
