The term “Position” refers to your place at the table relative to the dealer. Your position determines when you must make a move in a given round (i.e., who goes first, second, third, etc.). Positions are usually referred to as either “Early,” “Middle,” and “Late.” In Texas Hold’em, your position is extremely important to your playing strategy. Since Texas Hold’em has four rounds of betting, position is even more important than in other forms of poker.

The basic rule is that you should play fewer hands when you are in an early position and more hands in a late position; you should also play the same hand differently in different positions.  The later you play, the more information you can get from the other players and thus, the more capable you are of making better decisions.

The decision of whether or not to play a hand has a lot to do with the type of game. In a tight game (when there aren’t many players in the Flop) you should play fewer hands than in a loose game. If there are many aggressive players at the table, you should also play fewer hands than if you are playing against many passive players.  In general, in Texas Hold’em and in other forms of poker, the greater the competition is, the fewer hands you should play.

Some hands, like 

don't like many opponents, that is, a player with this hand will not want to play against many opponents. This is because if there are 4 more players, a pair of Aces has less than a 50% chance of winning, even if the other players have marginal or weak hands.

  16%

  13%

  12%

  10%

In such situations, a player should try to eliminate as many players as possible by placing a raise.

A   

or small and medium pairs like

do like a lot of opponents because if the JT (Jack, Ten) hits his card, resulting in either a Flush, highest Straight, or Set, etc., chances are good that at least one of the players has the second best hand and therefore will make him win a big pot.

From these examples, you can see how important it is to know how the other players play. This information will come in very handy when you have to make a decision to Fold, Call, or Raise. Playing in last position gives you some unique advantages such as being able to steal the blinds when nobody has placed a bet, getting a free card, and the ability to semi-bluff.

There are many Texas Holdem books which provide specific guidelines for how to play every hand in Texas Hold’em pre-Flop, according to your position. Some of them are great books by very good writers, such as David Sklansky. However, I don’t believe in following guidelines automatically; you should understan