Equity of that K5

I thought I'd look at that button call with the K5s and 6 callers in front of you (with on raise) in some more detail.

Using pokerstove, if the raiser is raising with the top 20% of his hands and the other callers are playing the top 60% of their hands then the K5s has equity of about 13.5%, the callers 13.6% and the raiser 18.5%.

To make a call worthwhile based on pot equity alone the hero would need about 14.3%. But with the added value of the button, at that point you're actually in think about raise territory.

If the kicker was a little better, say a K8s, the hero's equity is about 13.9, the other callers 13.5. Still in the call territory.

What about A5s? It's worth a raise just based on equity. Against that 60%/20% lineup the A5s has 16% equity, the callers 13.2% and the raiser 17.8%. This is an example of a situation where you don't have to think you have the best hand for it to be worth a raise on value alone, you don't need to try to reduce the field to make it worth a raise, in fact you don't want to reduce the field.

How about pair? That's a hand Mason said he'd call with. A 66 is worth a raise here. It's in even better shape (just slighly) than the A5s.

Position

Aggression is everything in poker. But it has to be selective, careful aggression. Blind, constant aggression is just throwing away money. Erratic, maniacal aggression is pointless. The most important factor in the selection of the time and playce to show aggression is position. In real estate it's location, in poker it's position.

Good position is a primary source of value for many poker hands. It's often more important than the cards themselves are. Aggression is how you realize value in poker, but position and the use of position in guiding your aggression is the source of the value.

Your position determines how much information is available to you when it's time to make a decision. Assuming you can evaluate and use it correctly, the more information you have the better decision you will make. Also, the less information your opponents have about your hand the more likely it is they'll make a bad decision. Position controls both sides of that coin -- how much information you have and how little information they have.

The value associated with position is easily demonstrated by looking at hold'em or Omaha -- games where position remains fixed for each betting round. In those games, if you're in late position every player (with the exception of the blinds in the first betting round) has to act before you do each betting round. Throughout the play of th ehand you'll have the maximum information about other's hands while they'll have to act with a minimum level of information about your hand.

If you're holding a hand like A8 clubs it's a lot easier to bet into a field of four players with a flop of K84 and one club if they've all checked than it is if you're first to act. That's not to say you shouldn't be betting that hand from early position, but it is a lot more iffy than it is from late position after everyone has checked.

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This material appears in a slightly different form in my book The Complete Book Of Casino Poker