Button (Dealer) — Poker Term Explained

The button marks the nominal dealer seat, and it speaks last on every postflop betting round. Before each of your decisions you have already seen what every opponent did on that street — check, bet or raise — so heads-up the button holds an information edge on the flop, the turn and the river. The button moves one seat left after every hand, so each player gets the seat equally often.

The button is normally the seat you open widest from, because only the two blinds are left to act. Postflop, position lets you bet small more often, bluff more cheaply, and check back medium hands instead of committing chips. You also control the pot size: you decide whether the hand stays small or grows. How wide that range should actually be depends on the format, the number of players at the table, effective stacks and how the blinds defend.

Two opposite errors. The first is auto-opening every hand from the button even against blinds that defend aggressively and 3-bet relentlessly. The second is playing the button like an early seat with a narrow range, which throws away the positional edge. A third is forgetting that position is measured against the players still in the hand, not against the whole table.

• The button acts last on the flop, turn and river
• The button is normally the seat played with the widest opening range
• The button moves one seat to the left every hand
• Only two players — small blind and big blind — act after a button open