Here's the thing about seat names - there are two types of names:
- Names that are explicit
- Names that are not
I'm not talking about PG-13 v. NC-17. What I mean, is that "under the gun" (UTG) doesn't tell you anything at all about how you should play a hand from that seat. It doesn't tell you anything about how your opponent will play a hand from that position, either. UTG is 6 seats off the button in a 9-handed game. It's 3 seats off the button in a 6-handed game. And UTG
is the button in a 3-handed game. So the designation "under the gun" doesn't mean anything at all in strategy terms. We should therefore get rid of it.
Middle position and early position are similar to under the gun. None of them mean anything explicit at all. Positions that are explicit:
Big Blind (BB): The player in the big blind
Small Blind (SB): The player in the small blind
Button (BTN): The player on the button
Cutoff (CO): The player to the immediate right of the button
Hijack (HJ): The player two seats to the right of the button
Lojack (LJ): The player three seats to the right of the button
These seat designations actually
mean something. They can tell us what ranges we should be playing and what ranges our opponents are likely to hold. When everyone folds to the hijack, it doesn't matter whether you're playing 6-handed or 10-handed. You know what that position means. But if you say someone raises from middle position, that only gives you a vague notion of where that player is sitting and what his range is.