Poker positions: Texas Hold’em table positions explained

What is position in poker?

Position is your place in the order of action for a hand. The dealer button sets it: each seat is named by where it sits relative to the button and the two blinds, and the button moves one seat clockwise after every hand. Your seat stays the same while you remain at the table, but your position changes each hand.

Players act in turn, clockwise. You are in position on an opponent when you act after them on the flop, turn and river, and out of position when you act before them. The order before the flop is different, because the small blind and big blind have already put chips in.

What are the positions at a six-max table?

A six-max table seats up to six players. In order of action before the flop, the seats are under the gun, the hijack, the cutoff, the button, the small blind and the big blind. Pokerista Academy’s practice tables and range charts use this layout. Switch the diagram between the two betting rounds, or to a heads-up table, to see how the order changes.

Seat names are a convention, not a rule, and sources differ. The seats nearest the button are counted back from it, so the cutoff is directly right of the button and the hijack two seats right at any table big enough to have them. Some training sites and strategy articles call the first six-max seat the lojack (LJ), because it sits where the lojack sits at a nine-handed table. Others, including Pokerista Academy, call it under the gun.

Who acts first before and after the flop?

Before the flop

The small blind and big blind post before the cards are dealt. The first player to act is the one to the left of the big blind, under the gun, and the action moves clockwise from there. The small blind acts second to last and the big blind last. The big blind counts as a live bet, so the big blind still gets a turn when the action comes round: if nobody has raised, they can check or raise. This is called the option.

UTG → HJ → CO → BTN → SB → BB

On the flop, turn and river

From the flop onwards, the first active player to the left of the button acts first, and the button acts last whenever it is still in the hand. Anyone who has folded is skipped.

SB → BB → UTG → HJ → CO → BTN

On every street, betting continues until each player still in the hand has put in the same amount, unless a player is all-in. A raise therefore brings the action back round to players who have already acted.

Heads-up: how the order changes

With two players, the button posts the small blind and the other player posts the big blind. The button acts first before the flop and last on the flop, turn and river. The Poker Tournament Directors Association’s rules set out this order for heads-up play (Rule 34-B).

The ordering rules themselves stay the same. Before the flop, action still starts with the player after the big blind; heads-up, that is the button. After the flop, it still starts with the first player after the button; heads-up, that is the big blind. What changes is who posts the small blind.

When a tournament reaches its last two players, the same TDA rule notes that the button may need to be adjusted so that no player has the big blind twice in a row. In the Academy, the course Make the heads-up transition (included with Pokerista Pro) covers the move to heads-up play.

What are the positions at a nine-handed table?

Full-ring games seat nine or ten players. With nine players, three more seats sit between under the gun and the hijack: UTG+1, UTG+2 and the lojack. The table lists every seat in the order they act before the flop.

Some sources use EP and MP as names for single seats, UTG+1 and UTG+2, and Pokerista Academy’s nine-handed tables label UTG+2 as MP. These seat names are separate from the early, middle and late groups in the Group column. Labels such as MP2 also appear, and the same label can mean different seats at different table sizes. When a chart or article uses position names, check how many players it assumes.

What are early, middle and late positions?

They are broad labels for groups of seats. A common grouping at a nine-handed table, used in the table above, puts under the gun to UTG+2 in early position, the lojack and hijack in middle position, and the cutoff and button in late position. Sources draw the lines slightly differently. The blinds are often treated separately, because they act last before the flop and first after it.

A six-max table has three fewer seats than a nine-handed one. Counted back from the button, it has no equivalent of the nine-handed UTG, UTG+1 or UTG+2 seats, so its first seat sits where the lojack sits. That is why some sources describe six-max play as starting in middle position, and why a chart written for one table size should not be read as a chart for another.

Why does position matter?

Position does not change your cards. It changes what you know when you decide, and how many players can still act after you.

Information

Acting later means seeing more decisions first. On the flop, turn and river, the button has seen every other active player act on that street before it chooses. The first player to act has seen none of that street’s decisions.

Players still to act

Before the flop, when everyone before you folds, each seat further round the table from under the gun has one fewer player left to act behind it. At six-max, under the gun has five players behind it, the hijack four, the cutoff three, the button two, the small blind one and the big blind none. Each of those players can still call or raise.

Closing the betting

When every player before you checks, the last player to act can either bet or check too. Checking ends the betting round without adding chips; players call this checking behind. It is part of what people mean by pot control: the last player to act has more say over whether more chips go in on that street.

None of this guarantees a result. Position is one input alongside the cards, the stack sizes and the action so far. Which hands to play from each seat depends on the model you study, so this page does not give a starting-hand chart. The free course Position at the table (Foundation, 8 minutes) works through a button example with knowledge checks.

How do the blinds and the button move?

The button moves one seat clockwise after every hand, and the two blinds move with it. With three or more players, the small blind is the first forced bet, posted by the player directly left of the button. The big blind is posted by the next player clockwise and is typically twice the small blind, although structures vary. Some games also use an ante. An ante posted by every player is usually smaller than either blind. Where one player pays the ante for the whole table, the TDA recommends the big blind ante format (Recommended Procedure 11).

As a result, your position changes every hand. At six-max, the player on the button is the cutoff on the next hand, then the hijack, under the gun, big blind and small blind, before returning to the button. One full circuit of the button is called an orbit, and in it each player posts the small blind once and the big blind once.

This is counting, not a result: the blinds go into a pot that someone wins. It shows how much each player posts in blinds per hand on average, and why that is higher at shorter tables, where the orbit comes round sooner. The table assumes the same players stay seated. In tournaments, players are moved when tables are broken or balanced (TDA Rules 10 and 11), and TDA events use a dead button (Rule 32), so the pattern can change as players are eliminated. If the order looks unusual, ask the dealer or floor.

Keep learning

The beginner guide shows how a whole hand plays out, from the blinds to the showdown, and the glossary’s table and seats terms define each seat in plain language.