Texas Hold'em is a game in which it's easy to learn the basics - covered in this starting hands guide - but difficult to master. Every player starts by learning the basic rules of the game and the appropriate starting hand selection, which is what we'll give you here.
What follows is a guide on starting poker hands in Texas Hold'em. This isn't a definitive guide you'll follow to the letter, as there's no such thing in poker. This is a suggestion on what is deemed to be good practice and a solid starting point for further learning of the art of playing poker. After reading this guide, you should have a solid understanding of how this game works and how you should play your starting hands.
It's vital to test your playing strategy.
Before we begin, let's first say that whatever strategy you come up with after reading this article, you should test it against real players to see if it stands in a real game. You can do that at any of our recommended real money online poker rooms
When you're done reading this guide, come back and check out our poker rooms list and see if you can put your new knowledge to good use. That's the only way to truly know if you should play those suited connectors or not.
There is no definitive answer to how many starting hands you should play. Generally speaking, if you're good at post-flop play then you can afford to play a wider range of hands successfully. All new poker players should stick to a tighter playing style, though. New players often make the mistake of playing too many hands, and a simple solution to losing less often is to play fewer hands. Playing tight also makes your post-flop decisions a lot easier.
As a rough guideline, we could say you should play no less than 18% of your hands as that would be too tight, and no more than 25% as that would be too loose.
In this article we won't touch the subject of different strategies for cash games vs tournaments, just keep in mind that the strategy does differ for different game types and what is written here is not a universal solution to every poker game type.
The following chart will show you the chance of winning your hand based on the two cards you got. It is assumed the opponents' cards aren't known. Read the winning percentage of suited hands on the top right half of the table and the winning percentage of unsuited hands on the bottom left half of the table.
Blue are premium hands with a win percentage of 75% or more. Green is the good hands, with a win percentage of 60% or more. Yellow are hands with a win percentage of 50% or more. Note that there are 40 blue and green hands on this table, so if you'd choose to only play these, this would mean you're playing 40/169 or 23.67% of your hands, which is near the top limit of what would constitute as loose play.
There are 169 different two-card starting combinations in Texas Hold'em poker. There are actually more if you'd count every single combination, but it is generally accepted that, for example, AK unsuited is the same starting hand regardless of the suit of those two cards.
Your starting two cards will fall into one of five categories.
Unconnected cards, suited or not, may be one-, two-, three-gapped or more. The chance of hitting a straight reduces as the gap widens. If the gap is four, then it's impossible to land a straight. If the gap is three, as in 84, then you need a flop of 765 to hit the straight. But, if you had 85, then you could hit a straight with 976 or 764.
Learning to play these five categories of starting hands is just the beginning. Good poker players will have a strategy in place for each of the 169 different starting hands.
Let's start by listing the hands you shouldn't play. Whenever your starting hand involves a small card, it is probably unplayable. Any hand with 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6, even 7, will be unplayable unless you have a strong card to go with it such as A or K, or to a lesser degree Q. Having one very weak card seriously hurts your chances of getting anything from the pot. It's important to have a good kicker - card that will play a role if two players have the same hand.
These guidelines for unplayable hands exclude suited connectors as they come with their own set of rules on how to play them and, of course, small pairs. Medium-suited connectors and small pairs are only to be played in late position.
Of 169 possible starting hands in Texas Hold'em poker, only a select few are considered premium, but you need to have a correct strategy for playing each one, as only AA is a hand that's relatively easy to play - though it too comes with its own set of challenges. These are the best starting hands you can get in poker:
We could also include TT, 99, and even 88 on this list, based on a pre-flop win percentage chance, but these hands are more difficult to play post-flop, especially if there was a raise.
Note that JJ is a frustrating hand to play for novice players, sometimes to the point that they hate the hand being dealt to them. AK is also a hand that's often overvalued by many players, but on the other hand it's a favorite hand of many professionals. There are books written on the subject of playing AK, which only goes to show what a difficult hand it is to play properly.
All pocket pairs have at least a 51% chance of winning the pot, peaking at 85% for AA. Small pairs usually can't win the pot if unimproved though, while medium and premium pairs can. The best scenario when you have pocket pairs is to hit a set. Your decision on what to do will also be based on how does the flop look like. For example, if you have 99 and there's no card better than 9 in the flop, that's a favorable situation. If you have 99 and you see an Ace and a King in the flop, then the assumption is that some other player connected with one of those cards, or both of them.
Small pairs do have good theoretical win percentages pre-flop, 51% to 64%, but in order to actually win the pot, no one else must have a stronger pair, you must get three-of-a-kind or better, or everyone else must fold. This makes small pairs tricky to play, as the assumption is that some other player will connect with the flop and get a stronger pair than you.
Small pairs don't hit the flop often enough to play very well, especially if you're playing against good players, if you're playing in early position, and if some other player raised. When you have a small pair, the decision will be based on what cards you think the other players have, and knowing that you should be in a late position.
You will raise only if you're in a late position and no other player indicated he has a strong hand, you'll call in most cases, and if you're facing a 3-bet then probably the best decision is to fold.
Medium pairs largely play the same as small pairs, though theoretical win percentages are higher, 67% to 75%. Medium pairs can win the pot even when they're unimproved, which makes them a lot stronger than small pairs, but still they must be played with caution as they only become really good if you hit a set.
You'll raise in medium position to late position in an unraised pot, most of the time you'll call, and if you see a 3-bet you might consider folding.
Premium pairs should be used to raise unraised pots or re-raise pre-flop whenever you have them, although some players sometimes like to slow play really strong hands like pocket Aces to lure the opponents. In most cases you'll want to raise and re-raise, but note that QQ and KK are much more vulnerable than AA, and that AA isn't an automatic winner either.
The benefit of suited connectors is dual, as you have a chance of hitting a flush and a chance of hitting a straight. Like any other poker hand, suited connectors are best played when you have position. Suited connectors are a hand that must improve in order to win the pot at showdown.
Of course, suited connectors with better cards, such as JT suited, also have the benefit of having two good cards, each of which might become a pair. AK suited is, for example, one of the best starting hands in poker.
It's important to note that it's often not enough to simply hit a flush as other players might hit it too, it's important what the high card of that flush is. This again strengthens the case for playing only suited connectors that have two good cards.
Suited cards are 2.5% to 4% better in terms of equity compared to offsuit hands. The advantage comes primarily because suited cards do much better against pairs than offsuit ones.
Connected cards are the same as suited connectors, except that they don't come with the added value of being able to hit a flush - at least not unless there are four more cards of the same color in the flop.
Many players overestimate the value of suited connectors and underestimate the value of unsuited connectors at the same time, so it's something to watch out for.
The quality of suited unconnected cards largely depends on the high card, as if it's A then you will have the best possible flush if multiple players go on to hit that same flush. It is up to each player to decide how loose he wants to play suited unconnected cards. Many players like to limp and see the pot and then decide if it's worth playing further. If the price of seeing the pot is low enough, and if at least one of your cards is high enough, then it might be a good decision to pay to see the pot.
"But it was suited!" is a common sentence uttered by losing players who have overestimated their chance of winning the pot simply because they had a suited hand. There are even t-shirts to buy with that phrase printed, usually with a display of weak cards such as 38 or even 27.
In poker, position is everything. When you get to play last, you already have all the information you can get about other players' cards, while if you play first, you have no information whatsoever. This is why every poker starting hands guide should be taken with a grain of salt, as the starting hands' chart with win percentages is just here to teach you what are good hands and what is not.
Generally speaking, if you have position in poker, you can afford to play looser, while if you don't have position your game should tighten up. It's important to bear in mind that other players are likely to use this same strategy too, so if an early player is raising, he is likely signaling that he has a very strong hand.
Now that you have a basic understanding of starting hands in poker, it's time to put that knowledge to good use and play poker online. At the beginning of this article, you'll find a list of poker sites that accept US players. There's no better way to learn how to play those tricky hands like JJ or JT suited than by competing against real opposition!
In Texas Hold'em poker there are 169 different possible starting hands.
It is universally accepted that the worst possible starting hand in poker is 27 unsuited. This is so because these are the two lowest four-gap cards. It is often called WHIP, which stands for Worst Hand In Poker.
A pair of aces is the single best starting hand in poker.
This depends on your playing style and your post-flop skills, but broadly speaking the number should be around 18 to 25 percent. A lower percentage means you're playing tighter, higher percentage means your game is looser.