Look, we talk a lot about poker position but the reality is that you can’t always pick what position you’re on. You have to make the best of your poker play situation by situation. That’s what counts. Can you be profitable “under the gun”? It’s a question that a lot of people want to know about. The reality is that yes, you can definitely be profitable under the gun but you’re going to have to change things around dramatically.
First and foremost, when we say “under the gun” we are talking about the point where you are looking at being the first person to take action before the flop. This is always the player to the left of the big blind. If you’re going to be under the gun, you’re actually in some trouble.
You see, the person who is under the gun is considered to be in the worst position possible. Since you have to act first, you have no idea what the other players are going to do. Even if you try to limp in, you’re vulnerable to raises. This is just no fun no matter how you look at it.
But there are a few things that you can do while you’re under the gun. For one, you can get pretty aggressive. Yet even that has its own concerns. First and foremost would have to be table image. If you’re someone that was turning over garbage before, they’re not necessarily going to believe that you have something good. This might work out for you, allowing you to suck in bets that you wouldn’t get otherwise, but you might find that it just causes people to cut you off before you can really do anything.
What you have to do under the gun is make sure that you’re only playing the best hands. It’s tempting to believe that you can get away with marginal hands but you really can’t — that’s a late position thing, if you’re going to do it at all.
Paying attention to the way others play will also help you develop an under the gun strategy that matches your situation. You can’t do the same thing under the gun for each and every poker table. That just wouldn’t make sense at all.
Evaluate each situation, and then move forward. That’s the real way to play good poker. Again, it cannot be stressed enough — you might have to fold more hands than you play. That’s key to maintaining a tight image — if you don’t have anything good, don’t hope that you’re going to get lucky. That will eat through your bankroll like nothing else!