Apr 14, 2009  Since a definitive guide on every hand and how and when to play it in every situation would take more words than a novel, this article will touch on the major points of basic pre-flop hands with broad strokes. Texas Holdem Starting Hands. Watch the video below for some immediate help picking the right Texas Hold'em Starting Hands. 'Starting hand selection' is simply choosing the good hands over the bad, and thus folding the bad hands when you get them. It is true that any hand can win in Texas Holdem (or poker in general for that matter), but the fact of the matter is that some hands will win more than others.

1. Texas Holdem Starting Hands Probability
2. Texas Holdem List Of Starting Hands And Feet
3. Good Texas Holdem Hands
4. Texas Holdem List Of Starting Hands Printable
5. List Of Best Starting Hands In Texas Holdem

Starting Hand Selection:Chen Formula : Sklansky Starting Hand Groups

In Texas Holdem, it is important to have good starting hand selection. This is important as it prevents you from entering pots with sub-standard hands, which could eventually lead to you losing a lot of money in the process.

'Starting hand selection' is simply choosing the good hands over the bad, and thus folding the bad hands when you get them.

It is true that any hand can win in Texas Holdem (or poker in general for that matter), but the fact of the matter is that some hands will win more than others. So if we stick with the good hands, then we should see better results in the long run.

Basic starting hand selection.

Top tier starting hands - top 2% of starting hands.

Good Texas Holdem starting hands are typically hands like big pocket pairs and big connecting cards. So some of the top starting hands would be:

• AA
• KK
• QQ
• AKs

The little ’s’ indicates that the cards are suited, which will increase the value of the cards because it makes it more likely that they will be able to make a flush compared to if the cards were not suited.

This is obviously the top tier when it comes to starting hands, and if we were to only ever be dealt these starting hands we would be making a lot of money. In fact, if we folded every other hand that we were dealt and only played these hands, there is a fair chance that we would be winning money in the long run. But this would only work at the lower limits where other players probably wouldn’t be aware that we only play premium hands.

Second tier starting hands.

If we only ever played with this elite group of cards, we would be folding numerous hands along the way and missing out on other opportunities to win money. Even though these are the cream of the crop when it comes to starting hands, there are still other great hands out there that can win us a lot of money in the long run if we play them.

Such hands are:

• AK
• AQs
• AJs
• JJ
• TT

This gives us another 6 starting hands that we can play with, increasing the number of pots that we will be entering. Although these are not as good as the first set of premium hands mentioned, they are still great starting hands that should help us to win money.

Top 10 Texas Hold’em starting hands.

Now if we stick with this set of 10 starting hands we should definitely by on the right track to winning some money from poker. So for any player new to the game you should try your best to stick to the following top 10 hands (also throwing in some of top 20 hands if you have good position):

1. A A
2. K K
3. Q Q
4. A K (suited)
5. A Q (suited)
6. J J
7. K Q (suited)
8. A J (suited)
9. A K
10. T T

1. A T (suited)
2. K J (suited)
3. A Q
4. 9 9
5. Q J (suited)
6. K T (suited)
7. 8 8
8. Q T (suited)
9. A 9 (suited)
10. A J

These hands can be played profitable from most positions by experienced players, but you should only play these hands from late position if there has been no action before you (no betting or raising) if you are still learning the basics.

As your game improves, you can look to open up your starting hand requirements and require more marginal hands like suited connectors. However, if you’re new to the game you are better off sticking with the big cards that hit bigger flops and make post-flop play a hell of a lot easier for you.

Starting hand selection and table position.

Your table position should always play a big role in determining the range of hands that you choose to play with.

You should stick to playing much stronger hands from early position than you would from late position.

This means that if you are in one of the early position seats, you should stick to playing the top two tiers of hands and avoid lesser hands like; AQo, AJs, AT, KQs and so on. Conversely, if you are in late position and there has been little action before you, you can afford to play these sort of hands far more comfortably.

Why is table position important in starting hand selection?

If you are one of the first to act in a hand, you are going to be at a serious disadvantage to the rest of the players who are acting after you. Therefore, to avoid making things worse, you do not want to be entering a pot with anything less than a premium hand.

Acting first means that you are going to have little information on your opponents. If you are playing with a mediocre hand, it is likely that you are going to be in a spot where you have no idea whether you have the best hand or not. These situations are the ones that lose you the most money in poker, so avoid falling into them by playing stronger hands from early position that will make it easier to determine whether or not you have the best hand.

The importance of starting hand selection.

Starting hand selection is key because it helps to save us from sticky situations post flop, especially if we are new to the game.

Starting hand selection example.

Say for example we are not exercising very good starting hand selection and we decide to call a raise with K T. The flop then comes K 8 2 giving us top pair, which looks like a very strong hand. Our opponent bets into us and we decide to call, because after all we do have top pair.

The turn comes a 4, and our opponent bets once again. We have top pair and we call seeing as we are still happy with the strength of our hand.

The river comes a 7, and our opponent bets into us one final time. We make the call with our top pair thinking we might still have the best hand, but our opponent turns over K Q.

He also has a pair of Kings but he has the higher kicker, so he takes down the pot.

Starting hand selection example evaluation.

This is an all too common problem for poker beginners, and it could have been so easily avoided by being a little stricter with our starting hand selection. Having top pair is great, but all so often an opponent can easily beat it with a better kicker. This is why it is important to have two big cards instead of one, because the size of our kicker can play a vital role in determining who the winner of the pot will be.

You are dealt two cards in Texas Hold’em; make sure that they are both good cards before you enter a pot. An ace with a low kicker is going to lose you more money than it wins.

Don’t be tempted to call raises or enter pots with hands like A4 (rag aces) or K7, because they will just get you into more trouble than they are worth. Make sure that you are the one with the better kicker every time and take the money from the players who are entering the pots with weaker hands than you.

It is actually reasonable to bring down our starting hand requirements if we have good position. Position will give us an advantage over our opponents if we are last to act, so we do not necessarily have to have such a strong hand to play with because will be obtaining information from the way our opponent plays because they will be acting first.

This information and knowledge of our opponent’s hand from the way they play will compensate for the fact that our starting hand is a little weaker than normal. However, we still have to be prepared to fold as having position does not guarantee that we will win the hand, it simply gives an advantage. It is advised that you only enter pots with weaker hands in position once you have become a little more experienced.

Conclusion.

As you continue to play poker and gain experience from the game, it is a good idea to start expanding your starting hand requirements and experimenting here and there. However, if you are new to the game it is strongly advised that you stick to the big cards so that you give yourself the best opportunity to win money from poker.

If you are entering pots with a poor hand, you should be expecting to see poor results.

Go back to the awesome Texas Hold'em Strategy.

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Texas Holdem Starting Hands Probability

It takes a long time for some Texas holdem players to understand the link between their profitability, or lack of profitability, and their starting hand. The fact is you can’t be a long term profitable Texas holdem player if you don’t make the correct choices with your starting hands.

One of the things that causes a problem for most players is there are only a small set of good starting hands. You can go 10 hands or more without seeing a decent starting hand. This can get boring quickly, because most people that play the game of poker are action junkies.

If you’ve folded the last several hands you often start looking for a way to get into a hand. Weak starting hands start looking better, and if you’re not careful you’re jumping into hands with small suited connectors and king three suited. This is clearly not the way to be a profitable Texas holdem player.

Other players eventually learn that weak hands are not profitable in the long run and start playing only their better hands.

As you learn to fold your weaker hands, you have to face a new challenge. You have to learn how to properly value the hands that you do play. It’s just as costly to overvalue decent hands as it is to play weak hands.

Here’s a list of five Texas holdem starting hands that you might be overvaluing. These five hands are all good enough to play in most situations, but if you value them too highly, they can cost you money.

1 – Ace King

Ace king is the most dangerous hand in Texas holdem. It looks like a great starting hand, and it’s good enough to play in almost any situation. But at the end of the day it’s still a drawing hand. Rarely will ace king win without improving.

The values in hands like ace ace and king king is not only are they high pairs to start with, but they also often win without improving. Ace king almost always has to improve to win with it at the show down.

You can play ace king two different ways, and the best way to play it depends on the specific situation. You can limp with it, just like you might limp with a medium pocket pair or ace jack suited in some situations, or you can enter with a raise.

When you limp with ace king, if you don’t improve on the flop you need to check and fold to a bet. Never call a bet on the flop with ace king unless you improve your hand. This is a terrible play and will consistently stray you away from your attempt at proper casino bankroll management.

If you raise with ace king it usually thins the field before the flop. The best situation with ace king when you raise is to see the flop with one opponent. With a pre flop raise, when you don’t improve on the flop you can either make a continuation bet or check and hope to see the turn for free.

When you miss the flop and make a continuation bet, if you get called and don’t improve on the turn, your best play is almost always check and fold to a bet.

Most of the time when I have ace king I enter the pot with a raise. This sets up the possibility of winning the hand with a continuation bet on the flop if my hand doesn’t improve.

You should play ace king most of the time; you just need to make sure you’re not overvaluing it. It’s also not strong enough to get all in with before the flop. I know that you often see players get all in with ace king in tournaments, but the only time you should do this is when you’re short stacked. And you should always be the first one to move all in; not making an all in call.

2 – Queen Queen

Queen queen is a powerful starting hand, but the mistake many players make is acting like it’s as good as pocket aces or pocket kings. With pocket aces, you always have top pair. It doesn’t matter what lands on the flop, someone has to draw a hand that beats top pair.

When you have pocket kings, the only card that can land on the flop that scares you is an ace. And often you still win the hand with pocket kings when an ace lands on the flop if you entered with a raise pre flop.

Texas Holdem List Of Starting Hands And Feet

With pocket queens you have to worry about an ace or king landing on the flop. It might not seem like a big difference to move from one scare card to two, but in this case it does make a big difference.

When you raise with pocket queens before the flop, try to imagine the types of hands that might call. If you’re facing pocket aces or pocket kings, you’re most likely going to get in a battle before the flop. But hands like ace king, ace queen, sometimes ace jack, king queen suited, and king jack suited are likely to call. Other possibilities include pocket pairs, hoping to hit a set and stack you.

You need to enter the pot with a raise with pocket queens to thin the field. But don’t overvalue them at any point on the hand. If you face a move all in before the flop with pocket queens, you might already be dominated. You need to use everything you know about your opponent when this happens to try to determine if you need to fold.

When an ace or king hits on the flop, I usually make a continuation bet, but when an opponent stays with me I slow down and try not to get committed to the pot.

3 – Jack Jack

I mentioned in the first section that ace king is the most dangerous hand in Texas holdem. Pocket jacks are the second most dangerous hand. They look like a strong hand, but there are simply too many ways you can lose with them on the flop.

As I was learning how to be a winning Texas holdem player, I lost too much money and definitely gave more to the casino house edge with pocket jacks. Eventually I figured out a way to play them profitably.

I play pocket jacks the same way I play pocket eights or nines. I try to get in the pot as cheap as I can, and play them for set value. When I hit a set I push hard the rest of the hand, and when I don’t hit a set I usually check and fold.

Good Texas Holdem Hands

If the flop has all undercards, I take a stab at it on the flop, but I’m very careful if anyone stays to see the turn.

4 – Ace 10 Suited

Ace 10 suited is rarely any better than ace two suited. The real value of the hand is when you complete a flush, and when you do complete a flush it’s hard to extract more value from the hand because your opponent can see the possibility of the flush.

You need to play ace 10 suited as a drawing hand, and you need to be careful when you hit any hand that’s not a flush. It can create a straight, but this doesn’t happen often.

5 – King Queen Suited

When you haven’t played a hand for a half hour or more, a hand like king queen suited looks like a monster. King queen isn’t a terrible starting hand, but it’s not strong enough to even see the flop in some situations. I don’t play it from early position, and rarely play it from middle position.

Every time you consider entering the pot, try to envision what you want to see on the flop. With king queen, what do you hope to see on the flop?

If the flop has a king or a queen, you have a high pair, but there’s no guarantee that you have the best hand. Any flush possibility without the ace on the board is dangerous. If the flop has a king and a queen, you have two pair, but you also might face a straight draw from any opponent who entered with ace jack, ace 10, or jack 10.

Texas Holdem List Of Starting Hands Printable

King queen suited isn’t a terrible hand, but you should only play it from late position and the blinds, and you can’t afford to play it too aggressively.

Conclusion

List Of Best Starting Hands In Texas Holdem

To be the best Texas holdem player you can be, you need to not only make smart decisions about your starting hands, but you also need to learn how to properly value the hands you do see the flop with. When you overvalue the strength of your starting hands it ends up costing you money. Make sure you don’t overvalue the strength of the five starting hands on this page.