Fundamentals of Poker - Limit Texas Hold'em

Good Starting Hands For Texas Holdem
Texas Holdem Best Starting Hands

Mason Malmuth

Texas Hold’em starting hands best to worst Learning to thin the field with your premium hands? Your chip stack will thank you. This chart will give you the rank of Texas Hold’em hands from best to worst. This can serve as an easy list of all hands sorted by strength rather than separated by biggest starting card. The best advice that we can give in this situation is that you have to find a good excuse to fold a hand. If you choose to call your opponent who has a better hand than you before the flop then you are the one who will lose in the long run. Below you see the poker chart that provides you the best Texas Holdem strategy.

Printable Starting Hands Chart. A neat and tidy, A4 size starting hand chart which you can print and keep in front of you for quick reference while you are playing. To download the Starting Hands Chart right click on the link and select save target as. It is a PDF file, so to. Texas Holdem – Top 10% Starting Hands. In Texas Hold’em, there are 169 unique combinations of preflop starting hands you can be dealt. This number is arrived at by grouping holdings into pairs, suited cards and offsuit cards, and considering that preflop specific suits (e.g.

Two 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?

Good Starting Hands For Texas Holdem

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.

Texas Holdem Best Starting 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.

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Classic Article: Fundamentals of Poker - Introduction
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One of hold’em’s most crucial decisions is, do I see the flop or don’t I see the flop? In this lesson we’ll examine the importance starting hand selection and what factors you need to consider before deciding whether to hold’em or fold’em.

There are 169 different two card starting hand combinations in hold’em poker. This number assumes, for the sake of argument, that is the same as , or any other suited combination. If you are not dealt a pair, then your starting hand will either be suited or unsuited, and either connected or unconnected (gapped). This means your starting hand will fall into one of the following five categories:

Pairs – e.g. , ,
Suited connectors – e.g. , ,
Connecting cards – e.g. , ,
Suited unconnected cards – e.g. , ,
Unconnected cards – e.g. , ,

Unconnected cards might be one, two, three-gapped, or more. The bigger the gap, the less chance you have of hitting a straight. For example, if you hold 73, then you’d need a flop of 456 for the straight

Texas Holdem Best Starting Hands Chart