Texas Holdem Starting hands
The first key concept to grasp in Holdem poker are the texas holdem poker starting hands. If this is new to you, read this guide before going near a poker table. In fact, its probably an idea to print this out and post it next to your PC. Choosing poker starting hands and so knowing which cards to play and which to fold is the key and main determinant which will determine whether you will make money of lose money playing poker.
The next concept to grasp is that no 2 card combination is unbeatable. Any 2 cards can be beaten, easily. Even 2 aces, whilst a strong hand pre flop, is still only a pair and when looking at the ranking of poker hands is towards the bottom of the scale.
Also did you know that there are 169 possible starting hands in poker.
The following guide shows the playable starting hands in a game of holdem. Remember as you gain more experience in poker and become better at bluffing you will start to play a wider range of poker hands.
Hand |
Relevant Guides |
||
Large Pairs |
Aces, Kings, Queens, Jacks. Even pairs
of tens, nines & eights are good quality starting hands (pre flop). |
Play these hands |
|
Aces with suited High
Cards |
Ace with a K,Q,J, or ten. You already
have high card and possibility of a flush (which you will take down assuming no full house). High
straights, and even a straight flush is possible with these cards. Get in and see the flop cheap.
Bet when you have the outs to justify play. |
Play these hands |
|
Suited Face Cards and Tens |
Not as strong as holding an ace but
still holds plenty of potential. Suited face cards are playable hands. They hold a lot of potential
including high pair with a strong kicker, straights, and flushes. Get in cheap and see the flop. |
Play these hands |
|
Aces with unsuited High
Cards |
Aces (unsuited) are not as strong as a
suited ace and you loose some potential with the flush but this is still a strong hand. Very often
the kicker comes in to play and with a K or Q or even J, you will often be in a good position
should 2 or you have an ace in hand. Whilst these are strong starting hands, position is important,
especially if you hold an A10 and raise and 2 people re-raise behind you. Being last to act is
important - see position strategy. |
Play these hands |
Playing Big aces pre flop |
King with Face Card |
A King with a Queen, or with a Jack is
a playable hand and has certain strength but there are many ways in which you can be beaten so
play these cards with care. |
Play these hands |
Premium Starting Hands
These are all cards that you should play as often as possible as they present the best chances to improve. The benefit of playing premium hands is that often you don't have to improve to win. Of course you may be thinking that you have seen people playing outside this range. Of course you have. Once you begin to develop instinct and begin to read people you will learn that it is more profitable playing the player that waiting for bullets.
You will notice that throughout the guide above we talked about "getting in cheap". This really is the key. It makes much better financial sense to get in cheap and make your winning hand before risking too much of your stack in an attempt. If you are interested to read further on this see our guide to playing the cheap flop.
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