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1. Best Starting Hand In Texas Holdem Poker
2. Best Starting Hand Texas Holdem 2017
3. Best Starting Hands In Texas Holdem Chart

One of the first skills you should learn in poker is what hands are better than others.

Before you even play a hand, you must know what hands beat what and what consists of a good hand to play.

Jul 02, 2008  Find the best starting poker hands. Learn about poker starting hands and holdem starting hands. Get free tips on Texas hold em. Texas hold 'em starting hands. In the poker game of Texas hold 'em, a starting hand consists of two hole cards, which belong solely to the player and remain hidden from the other players. Five community cards are also dealt into play. Betting begins before any of the community cards are exposed, and continues throughout the hand.

You have already learnt what final hands beat what in our Poker Hand Ranking article.

In this article we are going to look at the Starting Hands in Texas Holdem, these are the two cards that are dealt to each player sometimes also called the “hole cards”.

What are the Best Poker Starting Hands?

The perception of what is a strong starting hand in poker will differ from one player to the next, but the numbers don’t lie when it comes to what hands are mathematically better than the rest. Poker is a game based on probability and so the statistics are clear cut when it comes to which are the best Texas Holdem starting hands.

Everyone knows that pocket Aces is the strongest starting hand in Texas Holdem and that there aren’t many situations where you are going to fold these regardless of the situation. However, the line that’s drawn from there can be somewhat of a debate.

Changing Value of Starting Hands – How Many Opponents are you up against?

Best Starting Hand In Texas Holdem Poker

An overlooked aspect of starting hands is how their value and strength will fluctuate with the number of players at the table or how many opponents you are facing.

Playing pocket Aces in a hand against one single opponent (everyone else has folded) gives you an 85.3% probability of winning the hand (pretty good hey!). Now play that same A-A against 9 opponents in a hand and the probability of you winning has just dropped down to 31.1%, that means for every three times you play you would lose twice!

This is why we change our strategy with certain types of hands. For example, Hands such as big Pairs and big Aces will have a higher expected return versus only 1 or 2 opponents. As soon as you get more players in the pot, their value will go down drastically, especially your big Ace type hands (AK, AQ etc.).

Many players often trap with big hands like A-K trying to catch someone off guard. Next thing you know, there are 5 people in the pot and your A-K may as well be 7-2 at this point. This is why raising with big starting hands in Texas Holdem is key to their long-term win-rate.

On the flip side, you have drawing hands where the starting hand value in itself is not high and won’t win you the pot, but you are looking to make a big hand by connecting (or “drawing to”) the community cards. With drawing hands they play much better with more people in the pot and when you can see a cheap flop with them. Their value comes mostly from making big draws that are usually good at showdown, but are achieved less often, which means there must be more money in the pot for them to have a positive expectation.

For the most part, I’m speaking in general terms here. No hand should be played strictly for its value and we should always be playing our opponents and the situation, not just our hand strength. But, this article is to give you an idea about the actual value of starting hands in Texas Holdem, not how to play them.

Lets Take a Closer Look at Starting Hand Strengths

Best Starting Hand Texas Holdem 2017

Many hands can be grouped into categories that have a relative similar value in regards to pre-flop strength. Lets take a look at each category below.

The percentages included below are the probability that you will win the hand based on that starting hand and assumes you are playing against one single opponent. As we have discussed above, the more opponents in a hand, the lower your probability of winning becomes.

Note: Where stated, suited means the two cards are of the same suit and offsuit means the two cards are of different suits.

Big Pairs

• AA (85.3%)
• KK (82.4%)
• QQ (79.9%)
• JJ (77.5%)
• TT (75.1%)

Mid to Small Pairs

• 99 (72.1%)
• 88 (69.1%)
• 77 (66.2%)
• 66 (63.3%)
• 55 (60.3%)
• 44 (57.0%)
• 33 (53.7%)
• 22 (50.3%)

Big Aces

• AK suited (67.0%)
• AK offsuit (65.4%)
• AQ suited (66.1%)
• AQ offsuit (64.5%)
• AJ suited (65.4%)
• AJ offsuit (63.6%)
• AT suited (64.7%)
• AT offsuit (62.9%)

Big Kings

• KQ suited (63.4%)
• KQ offsuit (61.4%)
• KJ suited (62.6%)
• KJ offsuit (60.6%)
• KT suited (61.9%)
• KT offsuit (59.9%)

Big Queens and Jacks

• QJ suited (60.3%)
• QJ offsuit (58.2%)
• QT suited (59.5%)
• QT offsuit (57.4%)
• JT suited (57.5%)
• JT offsuit (55.4%)

Suited Connectors

• T9 suited (54.3%)
• T9 offsuit (51.7%)
• 98 suited (51.1%)
• 98 offsuit (48.4%)

Best Starting Hands In Texas Holdem Chart

All other suited connectors have roughly the same value, give or take 1 percent. For the most part, hands such as: 67s-54s etc… will have the same exact value pre-flop.

If we take a closer look at the figures above we will notice some occurrences that many players don’t realise. You will notice that having suited cards makes the value of a hand go up a decent amount. You will also notice that a hand like AJs has a better chance at winning then AQo. If you go down the list, you will notice this happening with almost group of starting hands.

The list above covers what most players with a solid grasp of the game will choose as their starting hands. You may add some in, but if we were to add all hands that every type of player would choose to play, this would take up 3 or 4 more pages.

If you want to delve more deeply into the probability of every starting hand and the changing value against more opponents then here is a great resource on Pre Flop Odds.

Suited Hands are Sooooo Pretty

Now, you may be thinking, why aren’t all suited hands on this list? You may elect to play any suited cards, regardless of what two they are, but let’s use an example to demonstrate how little value 2 random suited cards have.

A common hand you will see played at the lower stakes will be a hand such as Q2 suited. They see a high card and another card of the same suit and think it has to have some value. While it does hold its place in poker, it doesn’t take up much of it. The actual percentage that this will hand will win at showdown will be 49.9% against one opponent. That means you are actually an underdog in the hand and your opponent is favourite to win.

5 dragons slot machine free download. Moral of the story is, don’t play 2 random, suited cards just because they’re suited and look pretty!

Summary

Now that we have a better understanding of the actual probability of winning with each starting hand, you should be able to identify which starting hands actually represent strength rather than those that just look a lot better than they actually are. Use this to formulate a starting hand strategy to take advantage of this.

You will probably find that not playing certain hands that you once were can make you much more profitable. In poker, sometimes not playing a hand is just as important as how you play a hand.

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[nrelate-related] Fundamentals of Poker - Limit Texas Hold'emMason MalmuthTwo Plus Two Magazine, Vol. 8, No. 12

• General Guidelines
• Seven Card Stud
• Limit Texas Hold'em

There are five categories of limit hold ’em starting hands that we will discuss: Big pairs, small and medium pairs, two high cards, suited connectors, and big-little suited. Most other hands should be thrown away unless you have the big blind and the pot has not been raised.

Big pairs.

A pair of tens and higher is an excellent starting hand. With a high pair, you not only can make an even bigger hand, but also can completely miss the board — your hand does not improve — and still have a reasonable opportunity to win the pot. Obviously, the chances of winning with two aces are better than the chances of winning with two tens. In general, however, all high pairs have immediate value and should be played aggressively.

Small and medium pairs.

In hold ’em, as in seven-card stud, there is a big difference in strength between big pairs and smaller pairs. A hand like the

seldom wins the pot without improvement. Moreover, the odds against this hand improving to three of a kind on the flop are almost 8-to-1 (although you still can flop a straight draw).

Since small and medium pairs rarely win without improving, they have little immediate value and therefore can be classified as drawing hands. And to profitably play these hands, you need several opponents in the pot.

Two high cards.

Two unsuited high cards is usually a playable hand but not a great hand. Even though ace-king almost always should be played, a hand like the

often should be folded, especially if someone has raised. In addition, this hand must hit the flop to win in a multiway pot.

If your hand is suited, you should be more inclined to play. But remember the warning given earlier: Don’t overrate the value of two suited cards.

Suited connectors.

Hands like the

are only fair at best. And if your hand contains a gap, you cannot play it as often since your straight possibilities have decreased. This type of hand usually should be thrown away in early position, and you should not call a raise even from a late position unless many players are already in the pot.

Big-little suited.

An ace or a king with a small card of the same suit is similar in value to the suited connectors and should be played as such. Of course ace-little suited is better than king-little suited.

Starting Hand Quiz

1. What hands are you primarily interested in playing?

Big pairs and high cards, especially suited high cards.

2. How do you play these hands?

Aggressively. Almost always raise, and with the better hands, usually reraise.

3. Suppose two players are already in the pot. The first player has raised, the second has called, and you hold two kings. What should you do?

Raise again. You have a strong hand and would prefer to shut out the remaining players.

4. In what situation do small pairs play best?

In a many-handed pot.

5. When you play a small pair, what are you hoping to do?

To make three of a kind on the flop.

6. When do suited connectors play best?

When many opponents are in the pot.

7. You are in one of the blind positions, someone has raised, and there are several callers. What kind of hands should you play?

All of the good hands, plus all pairs and many of the hands that can make straights and flushes.

8. Which hand is better, ace-jack offsuit or eight-seven suited?

Normally, ace-jack offsuit is the better hand. But when a lot of players are in the pot, you would prefer to hold the eight-seven suited. In this spot, don’t overplay a hand like ace-jack.

9. If there is no raise, what hands do you call with out of the little blind?

Even though you can get in for only a partial bet, you still need to be somewhat selective. Routinely playing hands like the

eventually will prove costly. In other words, you still should discard your worst hands.

10. If someone has raised, how does this affect the hands you should play?

Generally, you need to be much more selective. Small pairs and medium suited connectors do not play well against a large pair, and when someone raises, he’s quite likely to be holding a large pair. In addition, a raise makes it doubtful that a lot of players will enter the pot. This means you will not get the implied odds — the amount of money you anticipate winning versus the amount you expect it to cost you — that many hands require to be profitable.

11. When should you play a hand like king-four suited?

When you are in a late position, several players are already in, and the pot has not been raised.

12. When you have a close decision regarding whether to play a hand, what should you consider?

In hold ’em, as in seven-card stud and all other forms of poker, you must take into account how well those opponents already in the pot play. The better they play, the less inclined you should be to go up against them.