What is more advantageous? ive always been taught that position is the most important thing, other than your hole cards and stack of course

If you have earlier position than your opponent and you raise him, he needs a better hand to call than he would if the positions were reversed. However if you were acting last you have a positional advantage...which is better?

Pre flop, post flop? In theory if you raise pre flop then yes whoever behind you SHOULD have a better hand but that's not always the case. Post flop you have to be fairly sure you're not getting set up for a possible trap which is why you would generally want to be doing it with hands that can hold up unimproved. Being late in position generally gives you the option to better determine the strength of your hand especially post flop.

Needing a bigger hand to call is not a disadvantage. In late position you get to pick your battles... if the pot has allready been opened up, you can make the decision to let the so-far small pot go with no loss, or to go after the raiser with what you have. You never get involved in pots with marginal hands against people with monsters.

Yes you sometimes have to fold your KJs lol... but this really isn't a disadvantage... those hands are only profitable if nobody else has a hand, and the earlier position player is telling you that he does!

I've actually been thinking about this quite a bit lately...I haven't figured out how to organize my thoughts enough to post yet...I'll try since it's been brought up...

Personally, it really depends on what kind of hand I have as to whether I want to be in late position or not...If I'm on AA,KK,QQ, I would almost rather get them from EP then LP. Mainly because I want to be able to open raise. This increases the fishes mistake of just cold calling (which most do). This also drives people out (if I'm on QQ or something similar) lowering the chances that I'll lose if an over card hits. I also like these hands post flop because the continuation bet will put pressure on the other players, on every street if I like the board.

With more drawing hands, I prefer late position, Even AK I would rather have on the button. If there are bunch of limpers, I can build a big pot to cover the times it doesn't hit and I have to let it go...This also allows me to get a feel for what other people have and how much they like the flop before I have to act. I can also play a little looser from late position for these same reasons...

In the end...I think position is important, but the reasons change based on the hands you're playing and your style.

If you guys can get your hands on TPFAP, sklansky covers the Gap Concept in depth. I think HoH covers it a bit too.

Originally Posted by WotaWaster

I would always rather get dealt AA in late position.

If you are first to act, what do you do?

It really depends on the table. If I'm at a table with a lot of raising, I'd consider a limp-reraise. If it's a very timid table I'd raise 2 or 3 BB. If it's very loose I'd consider raising 5 or evern 10BB.

Originally Posted by WotaWaster

You may raise to 3BB and get several calls - undesirable

You have a terrible misunderstanding of poker.

Originally Posted by WotaWaster

Ideally you want to see a bit of action, maybe 2 calls then a raise

Ideally, you would like 21 or 22 calls: I forget which it is.