Position and Betting Order
Learning objectiveRead button and blinds, including heads-up exceptions.
Understand the idea
The button marks the dealer position. The small blind and big blind post forced bets. In multiway preflop action, early seats act before later seats; after the flop, the button often acts last among active players and can use more information. Positions are relative to table size and active seats, not just seat numbers.
Heads-up differs: the button is the small blind, acts first preflop, and acts last after the flop. Read hand.button, hand.sbSeat, hand.bbSeat, you.position, hand.actor, and the action history instead of hard-coding a seat's role.
At the poker table
At a six-seat table, a button opening range may be wider than an early-position range because fewer players remain to act and later streets may be played in position.
Common mistake
Do not assume seat 0 is always the button or that the small blind always acts first on every street.
Try it yourself
For a heads-up hand, write the preflop and postflop action order.