The Power Is In The Button

There is just something about having it, especially in live games when there is an actual physical ‘button’.  In No Limit Cash Games, it is pretty essential for a number of reasons.  Getting tricky and defending your blinds in a cash game is so hard to do that most good players don’t even bother, unless you are Tom Dwan or something.  Tournaments are a different story where you need all the chips you can get, but we’re talking cash games. 

Here are a couple things to consider:

You get to see what everyone else in the hand does first.  Obviously.  What does that mean?  Let 's say you have 10's in early position after making a raise.  You are first to act after a flop of 

now what?  Hard to say..


Vs.  How about the same pocket 10's on the button with this flop:

This time there is a bet, a raise and then an all-in in front of you.  Pretty easy fold.


You get to control the amount of money in the pot.

Here is one that should have just been let go..The Pirate is in the small blind and it’s 6 handed.  It gets folded to the button who raises it to $2.50 and the Pirate calls.  $5.50 in the pot when the flop comes .

Now the Pirate checks and as the button with As, 2c we bet $5 to see the Pirate call.  
The turn is

and the Pirate checks again.  While trying to put him on a range is next to impossible, it might be a good idea to just check behind with an awful kicker.  $10 is what we bet, however and the Pirate shoves on us for another $26.50… now what?  If we are trying to control the size of the pot here, a fold is prudent now.  Also a check on the turn is fine too.  A donkey call is made and he shows us 2 pair and the river doesn't help us.

You can open up your range of starting hands like the Pirate does..

One of our heroes in our game wants to mix it up with Qd,8c

He bets $6 when the flop is:

to have the Pirate call.

comes on the turn.  

He fires $10 this time and the Pirate calls. 

on the river and our hero doesn't slow down.
Not fearing the flush and shovels $12 in this time and the Pirate calls again.  The hero is ruined when he sees 5h,4c turned over by the Pirate.

The final point that I will make is that you get to control information the later you are in the hand.  If our Pirate was no good with the small end of the straight, he could have just mucked it and played the next hand.  Even if it was checked down, he shows last, if at all and gets to decide what everyone else sees.


There is a lot more to button play.  We have just started to scratch the surface.  One of the great young players in the game is David Williams.  You can Head Over Here To See David Williams and check out his version in a pretty cool training video.


This is just some fun stuff to think about.  You know as well as I do there are plenty of sharks out there.  There are even some willing to fill you in on some stuff here:  Poker Virtual Training!


David Bridge, Jr