Button

A button is a position at a poker table in which a player is in the role of a dealer or, in other words, a croupier. Such a position is indicated by a special chip with the letter “D”.

Positions of players at the poker table

In order to understand who is a button, it will be useful to figure out about a variety of positions at the poker table. We can list the following ones:

SB and BB – the blinds go first – they make the first mandatory “blind” bets, even before the cards are dealt.
Early positions (UTG and UTG+1) are the first two positions to the left of the blinds. Their abbreviation stands for “Under The Ground”, which literally translates as “at gunpoint”. It’s rather complicated to play in these positions because on the pre-flop stage, players have to act first. Moreover, players at positions UTG and UTG+1 do not have the opportunity to assess the positions of other participants in the distribution.
Middle positions (MP1, MP2, HJ). These positions come immediately after UTG and UTG+1. MP stands for a middle position. In these positions, players have more freedom of action, as they have the opportunity to evaluate the actions of the participants in the distribution in earlier positions. HJ, in fact, is an acronym for “hijack”. The name is explained by the fact that the opening raise from HJ prevents the players in late positions from stealing the blinds.
Late positions (CO, BU) are the last positions on the table. In the pre-flop stage they are considered to be the best, as the players have the opportunity to evaluate the actions made by previous participants in the distribution. Furthermore, they are good for stealing blinds.

What are the benefits of the position?

There are three main advantages of playing a role of a dealer:

At the pre-flop stage, the player has the opportunity to analyse the actions of all opponents and, based on this, decide on further steps of their strategy.
A player has an opportunity to steal blinds and attack players who have played without raising.
With a weak hand, a player can always fold and keep a stack.