Value of Position -- UTG

[RocketManJames]

Here is a theoretical question. Assume you are a winning player, say 4BB/100 hands.

What happens to your win rate if you simply never play from UTG (muck without looking)? What happens if you add UTG+1, etc?

What if you are only a slight winning player... say 1BB/100 hands?

-RMJ

[balkii]

You would lose money. I mean not lose money but you wouldnt win as much. Unless you lose money from UTG. But if you lose money from UTG I would just tighten up. Then you would probably win.

[1800GAMBLER]

Tommy has an article on his website (i have no idea of the address, someone may link) in which he tries to call UTG and UTG+1 unprofitable so he can go outside to smoke, so infact smoking is making him money.

[Izverg04]

You can use PokerRoom statistics (http://www.pokerroom.com/games/evstats/positionStats.php?players=10) to evaluate the relative value of position. Just substitute 0 for the negative numbers since you'll avoid these hands and average the columns (with appropriate weight).

Using these stats, value of playing UTG position is 0.5 BB/100 hands and value of playing on the button is 0.7 BB/100 hands. These numbers are too low for a winning player but at least give an idea of position value.

If playing UTG is -EV for someone, then certainly not playing at all is +EV for that player. No way will he make up for money lost in the blinds in that case. Position value is not that important.

[Mano]

I think this (http://www.tommyangelo.com/articles/smoking_for_profit.htm) is the article you are referring to.

[Warik]

A solid, winning poker player will win money from every position except the blinds. That being said, eliminating UTG and UTG+1 will actually LOSE you money and reduce your win rate.

If you want to eliminate a position that is costing you money, eliminate the SB and BB. /images/graemlins/smile.gif