Cash Games
Position is the only edge you are handed for free
Acting last is worth more than any starting hand, because it turns two guesses into one and lets the same cards be played for a wider profit.
Every other advantage in poker has to be earned. Cards are dealt at random, opponents choose their own style, and the size of the pot is the product of decisions nobody controls alone. Position is different. It is assigned by the movement of the dealer button, it rotates on a fixed schedule, and for one hand in every orbit it hands a player the last word on all three streets after the flop. Nothing else at the table is given away so cheaply or wasted so often.
The concrete benefit is informational. A player who acts first has to commit to a bet, a check or a fold without knowing what the other player intends to do. A player who acts last has already watched that decision happen. The same holding, played from the same stack, against the same opponent, is worth measurably more when it is played with that extra piece of information attached to every street.
