Ask anyone who has played for a few years which seat is best, and the answer is almost always the same: the button.
Not because the button gets better cards — the deal is random, and all six seats are dealt AA exactly as often. The button is good because after the flop it always makes the last decision. That has a name of its own: being in position. Saying the button is the most fun seat to play doesn’t sound very expert; say the button has a “positional advantage” and people will think you know what you’re talking about.
The previous post, Texas Hold’em Basics: Position Names at 6-Max and 9-Handed Tables, covered absolute position: which seat you are in. This one covers relative position: in this hand, how you stand in relation to your opponent.
1. What IP and OOP Mean
- IP (In Position): after the flop you speak later than your opponent
- OOP (Out of Position): after the flop you speak earlier than your opponent
Note the words “after the flop”. Relative position is almost always about the flop, turn and river, because the blinds scramble the preflop order — the big blind speaks last before the flop but second after it. “Speaking late before the flop” is not the same as “being in position”, and it is the single thing beginners get wrong most often.
2. Why Speaking Later Is Worth Money
Hold’em is a game of incomplete information: you cannot see your opponent’s cards and can only guess from what they do. So on every street, the player who speaks later has one more piece of information than the player who speaks first — what the opponent just did.
In position, you get to see what your opponent does first:
- They check: they may have nothing, or they may be setting a trap, but the choice is yours — check behind if you want to see the next card for free, bet if you want them to fold
- They bet: they may really have something, and you can simply fold without putting in another chip
Out of position, the order is reversed: you have to decide first, then watch your opponent respond to what you did. You bet, they can raise; you check, they can bet and push you around. On every street you act without having seen your opponent act.
That gap compounds over all three streets:
| In position (IP) | Out of position (OOP) | |
|---|---|---|
| Information | See the opponent’s action first on every street | Have to act first on every street |
| Pot size | You decide whether it gets bigger | Your opponent decides |
| Free cards | Can check behind when the opponent checks | Your opponent can bet after you check |
| Bluffing | Fire only when the opponent shows weakness, so the timing is sharper | Have to fire without knowing how strong the opponent is |
| Draws | Easier to see the next card cheaply | Often have to pay a bet to see the next card |
Being in position is like sitting an exam where you get to see what your classmate wrote before you answer. It does not guarantee every answer is right, but it makes getting one wrong much less likely.
3. How to Tell in a Second Whether You Are IP or OOP
One rule is enough:
After the flop, if your opponent sits to your right (and so speaks before you), you are IP.
More concretely: the postflop order is SB → BB → UTG → MP → CO → BTN. The later you come in that sequence, the more position you have. So:
- The button is IP against anyone
- The small blind is OOP against anyone
- Every other seat depends on who the opponent is
4. The Three Most Common Match-Ups
All of these are spots where only two players are left after the flop.
UTG against the big blind: UTG is IP. The big blind speaks last before the flop, but after the flop it comes before UTG, so it has to act first. This is the situation the big blind meets most often when defending — cheap before the flop, at a disadvantage after it.
UTG against the button: the button is IP. UTG speaks first before the flop and still has to act first after it; the button gets to watch everyone else on both. It is also why players who open from earlier seats find a re-raise from the button such a headache.
Small blind against big blind: the big blind is IP. In almost every other match-up the big blind is OOP; the one exception is against the small blind. The small blind, for its part, is out of position against anyone after the flop, which makes it the hardest seat at the table to play.
Quick Quiz
Cutoff (CO) against button (BTN): who is IP after the flop?
The button is IP. The button sits to the cutoff’s left, so going round clockwise after the flop, the CO always speaks first.
5. So Why the Button
Put the two earlier points together:
- After the flop the button is IP against anyone — the only seat at the table that is
- When the action reaches the button before the flop, only the two blinds are left behind it — and both of them are out of position after the flop
That means when the button opens, even if it gets called, it is almost certain to have position for the next three streets. It can enter the pot with weaker hands than anyone else, because it plays more comfortably after the flop than anyone else. There is a fuller picture of the seat in the Button (BTN).
The other way round, the small blind is the worst seat at the table: before the flop it has only one player left to get past, which looks good, but after the flop it is OOP against anyone. More in the Small Blind (SB).
6. Position Does Not Only Matter After the Flop
Relative position is about play after the flop, but its value starts being counted before it: if you know you will probably be out of position after the flop, you should come in with better hands before it. That is the link between position and “which hands to play” — the subject of the next post.
Position also changes how you handle the same hand after the flop: holding AA in the big blind and holding AA on the button call for completely different handling when an opponent suddenly bets (see how to play pocket aces after the flop); and out of position it is also harder to collect the extra money that comes when your draw gets there (see layer 3 in how to work out pot odds).
One sentence to remember this post by: the player who speaks later sees one more piece of information on every street. That is the one and only reason the button is called the best seat at the table.