Positions
Under the gun (UTG) in poker
Definition
The first player to act before the flop, seated directly left of the big blind; the earliest and toughest position.
UTG has to act with the whole table still to act behind, so it plays the tightest range. In full-ring games positions UTG+1 and UTG+2 are also early.
In 6-max games the UTG seat is simply the first seat after the big blind, and the range there is wider than in a nine-player game.
Related terms
- Hijack (HJ)The seat two to the right of the button, just before the cutoff; the start of the late positions.
- PositionYour seat relative to the dealer button, which decides when you act: the later you act, the more information you have.
- StraddleAn optional extra blind bet posted before the deal, usually double the big blind, which raises the stakes of the hand.
- Open-raiseThe first raise before the flop, made when nobody else has raised yet.