Jul 24, 2019 Studying this baseline chart is a necessity for developing a winning strategy in poker.If you're opening up too many hands, even if it's slightly –EV to open with preflop, your mistakes throughout the hand are going to compound - potentially putting you in even bigger –EV spots, if you play sub-optimally post-flop. Some notable theorists and players have created systems to rank the value of starting hands in limit Texas hold'em. These rankings do not apply to no limit play. Sklansky hand groups. David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth assigned in 1999 each hand to a group, and proposed all hands in the group could normally be played similarly. Stronger starting hands are identified by a lower number.
- No Limit Texas Hold'em Hands Held
- No Limit Texas Hold'em Rules
- No Limit Texas Hold'em Hands Game
- Free Texas Holdem No Download No Registration
In this article we are going to take a look at an introduction to No Limit Holdem Strategy.
Texas Holdem has quickly become the most played game all over the world.
Even more so, No Limit Texas Holdem has become the game of choice by the majority of poker players and is the game that you will most likely be seen being played in any casino poker room.
Since the game has become so popular knowing some basic Holdem Poker tips will help you to really stand above a lot of other players and help you to win on a more regular basis.
As an introduction to No Limit Texas Holdem Poker strategy here are 3 tips which should form the foundation of your poker strategy.
Tip 1 – Play Tight
This is one of the most basic no limit Texas Holdem tips and the first advice that we give to all new poker players.
Texas Holdem has become popular rather quickly and since all of the big tournaments have recently been televised there is a whole generation of poker players who watch poker on TV and think that they know how to play correctly when in fact they couldn't be more wrong.
All that these players see on TV are the big 'all in' hands and big bluffs – basically they see all the hands with drama in which are good for TV. The TV stations don't show all of the hands that each player folds because they are focusing on all of the big hands around the tournament, all the 'normal' hands get cut and left on the editing room floor.
New players see this and have the perception that every hand they play in should be played in the manner that they have seen on TV, not realising that in between these hands are many hands that are uneventful and just folded without any drama.
So what this leads to at the lower stakes tables, which are full of new players, is a tendency to overplay their hands, place big bets, attempt many bluffs and call bets when they shouldn't.
The first rule of good strategy then has got to be one that takes advantage of these bad plays… so how do we do that?
We do this by adapting our style to play a tight Texas Holdem strategy, only playing good hands and making sure that when we enter a pot and play a hand then we are in a strong position and ready to punish the bad plays of the beginners.
By doing this you are catching these players in their bluffs and having better hands than they do at showdown because you are playing a tighter and stronger range of hands.
These players are prone to thinking that big bets will win the pot very frequently and are not aware of their table image. By identifying these players and playing your strong hands against them you will soon emerge victorious and be collecting their chips in front of you at the table.
Tip 2 – Be Aggressive
Another type of player that you will commonly see a lot is the 'loose passive' player. These players play a lot of hands (the 'loose') but are quite weak and easily pushed off the hand (the 'passive').
They don't like to fold before the flop as they want to see if they can make a hand and when they do they want to get to showdown as cheap as possible to see if they have won.
It is simple maths and probability that by playing so many hands they can't connect with the flop all the time, in fact we can go so far as to say that they will miss the flop and not make a hand the majority of the time.
By being aggressive against these players you punish them for playing so many hands and calling so lightly. These players are very good to build your bankroll against with a tight aggressive style.
You should be betting often against these types of players even if you have not made a hand to take advantage of the fact that they will most likely fold the majority of the times that they don't make a hand either.
This leads us to a new poker term, fold equity, which is one of the most important reasons to be aggressive and is an essential addition to your no limit Texas Holdem strategy.
Fold Equity
When you are playing poker you do not have to have the best hand to win. You can also win the pot by making your opponent fold.
By being the aggressor, or the one who is betting and raising, you are giving yourself a second chance of winning the pot by making your opponent fold.
This additional value increases your chances of winning the pot when making a bet and is called the 'fold equity'
For example, lets say you have a strong but easily beatable hand and you think it is 50/50 that your opponent holds a better hand. So your chances here are 50% to win the hand. If you make a bet then you think there is a 50% chance that your opponent will fold as his hand is not that strong either.
- You now have a 50% chance you opponent will fold and you win the pot +50%
- Even if he does call you will win 50% of the time with a better hand +25% (50%x50%)
- So your overall chance of winning the hand is 75% if you make a bet vs 50% if you do not bet.
By sticking to this tight aggressive style and paying attention to what types of players your opponents are you will be able to greatly improve your game by not only ensuring you are playing good poker, but also taking advantage of the style of play of you opponents and optimising your play to counter it.
Tip 3 – No Limit Holdem Bankroll
Another essential basis of any No Limit Holdem Strategy is to protect your bankroll. Just like any other finances you should monitor and manage your bankroll to ensure that you are playing at the correct stake levels.
Poker is a game of skill, but it is also based on probability like any card game, and you are always reliant on the draw of the cards.
Good poker players understand the probability and odds of the cards they need arriving but no matter how well you play and how much your strategy is designed to maximise the odds in your favour there is a chance that the smaller odds will hit and you will lose.
In the long term this is not a problem, because if you play correctly and with the odds in your favour then the laws of probability dictate that over the long term you will come out on top.
So as part of a good strategy we must protect ourselves against the short term fluctuations of the lessor odds hitting and beating us. This is often called 'variance' in poker.
We also need to protect against us having an off day and playing badly in a poker session, making incorrect decisions – there are all sorts of reasons this may happen, tiredness, illness, distractions.
To provide this protection we establish bankroll management rules which say that we only sit down at a table with a small percentage of our total bankroll. This way if you have a losing session then you have plenty of further buy-ins with which to play another time and recover those losses.
Play free new online slot games. Top among the poker machines to play new free slot games online include Retro Rush from IGT (96.10% RTP) and Tiger Stacks from IGT. Online casinos offer special bonuses and promotions to gamers who play their new Vegas slot machines. The penny slots are playable with as low as $1 per spin, and they are accessible on mobile devices. New Online Slot Machines. Latest Slots - Free Play - Instant Play Games. A selection of brand new free slot machine games. These are the latest genuine Vegas slots which are free to play, made by IGT, WMS, Bally, Aristocrat and Konami. With lots of new games from Betsoft, RTG, Rival Gaming and Vegas slots too, we hope you can find something you. New Online Slots. New online slot games are launched every month and on this page we bring you all of the hottest titles to hit online casinos in recent times. Slots lovers are spoilt for choice thanks to the huge selection of new slots they can take for a spin, each one offering a different and exciting opportunity to win big money and take the jackpot home. A slot game packed full of special features and bonus game rounds. This exciting hot slot is brought to you by the leaders in slot game software providers, Playtech. This slot is for players looking for that extra punch in there slot play. The Mummy is a 5 Reel, 25 Payline slot game where the highest payout is a whopping 10,000 coin jackpot.
The normal rule for No Limit bankroll management is to maintain 20 buy ins and only risk 5% of your total bankroll at any single table. A normal buy in for a table is 100 big blinds, so that would represent about 2,000 big blinds. As your bankroll grows, you can play higher stakes, if it shrinks then you may have to drop to lower stakes until it recovers.
This level of protection is required due to the volatile nature of No Limit and the potential to lose your whole buy in very quickly if it all goes wrong.
Making sure that you obey these strict set of rules is very important and the first rule of good strategy that you must learn. You can read more about bankroll management in our introduction article.
Summary
The above tips are by no means meant to be a complete strategy, they are just some introductory notes that you should understand before you start to develop a No Limit Texas Holdem Strategy.
If you would really like to improve your Texas Holdem strategy then we highly recommend the free Winning Poker Strategy Guide over on Poker Professor. This is a complete strategy course that will teach you multiple ways to improve your strategy. It will also walk you through turning $25 into $1,000 by the end of the course.
Trust & Security
I'll only recommend Safe & Trusted sites with a proven track record
By Game Type
Different rooms are better for different game types & stakes
Beginner Friendly
I'll find you a site with players of a similar skill level Golden pokies casino poker.
Promotions
I'll find you the best value Promotions, Bonus & Freebies!
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. But holding T8, you could flop a straight with 9JQ or 679.
The Best Starting Hands in Hold'em
Let's start by talking about the best starting hands, which are often referred to as ‘premium hands'. There is some disagreement amongst poker players as to which starting hands are the best, but few would dispute the value of the first of our three main groups, Aces and Kings.
Group 1: AA, KK
These two starting hands are the major players in hold'em. It's not often you'll get dealt Aces or Kings. In fact you get either Aces or Kings once in every 110 hands, so it's not nearly as often as we'd like. Aces are by far the best possible starting hand in hold'em, closely followed by Kings. However, you should be aware that even Aces or Kings can get cracked, and they don't play too well against multiple opponents. This means you should definitely be raising pre-flop to narrow the field. Extra caution is necessary when playing Kings, because if an Ace falls on the flop then you're losing to anyone who has a single Ace in their starting hand. While they are very strong hands which most players love to get, they are certainly not unbeatable.
Group 2: QQ, JJ, AKs
Queens and Jacks are great starting hands, and with either of these, you can usually be confident you have the best starting hand. Of course they are dominated by Aces and Kings, but they're a favourite against all other starting hands. While Queens and Jacks will occasionally run into a player holding either Aces or Kings, it doesn't happen too often. Play these cards strongly, and always look to raise with them.
Ace-King is known throughout the poker world as Big Slick, and when suited it's often called Super Slick. Doubledown casino. While it isn't a ‘made hand', unlike a pair, it offers great potential. It's only a big underdog to Aces and Kings, and even pairs like Queens and Jacks are only slight favourites. The beauty of AK (suited or unsuited), is that it dominates so many other hands like AQ, AJ, AT, and so on. These types of hands are the ones that players usually end up pushing all-in with late in a tournament.
Group 3: TT, AK, AQs, AJs, KQs
This next group of starting hands is also a strong bunch. You should definitely be looking to raise pre-flop with any of these hands too. We've already talked about the power of AK, but starting hands like AQs, and AJs, are also very strong and often run into weaker Ace-X combinations. Even though these are all strong starting hands, and most of the time you'll be winning pre-flop, you have to be careful – particularly a hand like KQs, which you can easily fold to a re-raise.
Suited Cards
No Limit Texas Hold'em Hands Held
You'll often hear novice players responding to questioning of why they played a particular starting hand with the line 'well, because they were suited'. Some suited cards are worth playing and it's certainly better to start with suited cards than unsuited cards. However, the odds of flopping a flush is 1 out of 118 hands (0.8%) with two suited cards, and you'll only make a flush after the river around 6.5% of the time. Don't fall into the trap of playing any two cards just because they happen to be suited – it doesn't make a big enough difference to make junk hands valuable.
Kicker Issues
The word ‘kicker' means the smaller of your two cards. Some players play a hand if it contains an Ace with any other card (such as an Ace with a 3 kicker), and this type of play ultimately cost players money and tournaments. For example, let's suppose a player calls with A6 and the flop comes A83. What does the player do? bet? call? raise? call a big raise? go all-in? What if the flop comes Q63? The player has middle pair – which is very hard to play. Hey, the flop could come A6X – the player has two pair, Aces and sixes but this happens only 1 out of 49 hands (2%). Until you learn when and how to play Ace junk (AX) go slow with it. One good thing about A junk and K junk, is that you do not need to play these hands to learn when they may be profitable. Let experience from other hands and study be your teacher.
Table Conditions
Hold'em starting hands can be a complex subject because every situation is different. If you were to ask a professional poker player, 'should I call, raise, or fold this hand pre-flop?' his response would almost certainly be 'it depends!' Here are some of the main reasons why it depends:
The Number of Players
The value of certain starting hands is very dependent upon the number of players at the table. Certain starting hands are always going to be under threat against a table of nine or ten players, but the value of these same hands increases when there are fewer players. A starting hand like KJ might be vulnerable against a full table of players, but is considered a strong hand if there are just a few other players.
Position
Your position on the poker table will be a major factor in deciding which starting hands you should play. The later your position in the betting order, the better – because you get to decide what to do after most of your opponents have acted. We'll talk much more about the importance of position throughout our lessons on Pokerology, but as a first step please see our lesson on the value of position. Playing position can elude us at first because it is a part of poker that lends itself to be exploited through experience. However, you must quickly realize that your position at the table should heavily influence the choice of starting hands that you play. Until a player has a feel or grasp for positional play, just believe and follow some of the suggestions on the subject.
A Raised Pot
Whether or not a pot has been raised should be a very important factor in your decision to play a particular starting hand. Your selection of starting hands should change when the pot has been raised by a reasonable player. If there has been a raise and a re-raise before you're due to act, then you should only consider playing with a very strong hand. Of course this will also depend on the personality types of the other players and whether the game is very loose or passive.
Starting Hand Charts
When you first start playing poker it can be helpful to use a starting hand chart as a point of reference. We've created a couple of starting hand charts that can be used by beginners. Please click on the following links to view these charts (they will open in a new window):
Each of these charts loads as a PDF, meaning they be viewed on screen, bookmarked or better still, can be printed and studied offline.
Beginners can treat starting hand charts as the gospel, but once you know enough about the game to recognize appropriate opportunities, you can deviate because your adjustment may represent a more profitable play. Our starting hand charts are a guide, not a set of intractable rules. There is no such thing as a perfect starting hand chart, because every game is different and there are many variables at work. Game texture and table conditions can't be measured and included into a neat formula.
There are many factors that may encourage you to tighten or loosen your play from our guidelines. If you have a starting hand that's not listed on the chart, then there's a good reason – it should almost always be mucked. But as in all poker decisions the phrase, 'It depends' comes to mind. However, before you decide to deviate from our guidelines, have a reason for taking such an action.
Conclusion
Don't fall into the trap of playing any two cards. Most poker players want to play hands and as a beginner it's very easy to be seduced by suited cards or picture cards, or any two-card holding that contains an Ace of a King – but if you play hold'em correctly, you're going to be selective and toss away the vast majority of hands you're dealt.
When you gain more poker playing experience you can begin to open up your range of starting hands – but until then, proceed with caution and only play the best hands. Loose, promiscuous play will get you into trouble and is the downfall of many players.
In future lessons we'll expand much more on the topics discussed in this poker lesson and get you to think beyond the actual cards you're dealt. We also have hours of video footage covering starting hand selection for both no-limit and fixed-limit hold'em – so depending upon your preference, be sure to check them out!
Related Lessons
No Limit Texas Hold'em Rules
By David Sasseman
David lives in Atlanta, Georgia, and has played over a million hands online and many thousands of hands in Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, and Las Vegas casinos.
Related Lessons
No Limit Texas Hold'em Hands Game
Related Lessons
Free Texas Holdem No Download No Registration
Since the game has become so popular knowing some basic Holdem Poker tips will help you to really stand above a lot of other players and help you to win on a more regular basis.
As an introduction to No Limit Texas Holdem Poker strategy here are 3 tips which should form the foundation of your poker strategy.
Tip 1 – Play Tight
This is one of the most basic no limit Texas Holdem tips and the first advice that we give to all new poker players.
Texas Holdem has become popular rather quickly and since all of the big tournaments have recently been televised there is a whole generation of poker players who watch poker on TV and think that they know how to play correctly when in fact they couldn't be more wrong.
All that these players see on TV are the big 'all in' hands and big bluffs – basically they see all the hands with drama in which are good for TV. The TV stations don't show all of the hands that each player folds because they are focusing on all of the big hands around the tournament, all the 'normal' hands get cut and left on the editing room floor.
New players see this and have the perception that every hand they play in should be played in the manner that they have seen on TV, not realising that in between these hands are many hands that are uneventful and just folded without any drama.
So what this leads to at the lower stakes tables, which are full of new players, is a tendency to overplay their hands, place big bets, attempt many bluffs and call bets when they shouldn't.
The first rule of good strategy then has got to be one that takes advantage of these bad plays… so how do we do that?
We do this by adapting our style to play a tight Texas Holdem strategy, only playing good hands and making sure that when we enter a pot and play a hand then we are in a strong position and ready to punish the bad plays of the beginners.
By doing this you are catching these players in their bluffs and having better hands than they do at showdown because you are playing a tighter and stronger range of hands.
These players are prone to thinking that big bets will win the pot very frequently and are not aware of their table image. By identifying these players and playing your strong hands against them you will soon emerge victorious and be collecting their chips in front of you at the table.
Tip 2 – Be Aggressive
Another type of player that you will commonly see a lot is the 'loose passive' player. These players play a lot of hands (the 'loose') but are quite weak and easily pushed off the hand (the 'passive').
They don't like to fold before the flop as they want to see if they can make a hand and when they do they want to get to showdown as cheap as possible to see if they have won.
It is simple maths and probability that by playing so many hands they can't connect with the flop all the time, in fact we can go so far as to say that they will miss the flop and not make a hand the majority of the time.
By being aggressive against these players you punish them for playing so many hands and calling so lightly. These players are very good to build your bankroll against with a tight aggressive style.
You should be betting often against these types of players even if you have not made a hand to take advantage of the fact that they will most likely fold the majority of the times that they don't make a hand either.
This leads us to a new poker term, fold equity, which is one of the most important reasons to be aggressive and is an essential addition to your no limit Texas Holdem strategy.
Fold Equity
When you are playing poker you do not have to have the best hand to win. You can also win the pot by making your opponent fold.
By being the aggressor, or the one who is betting and raising, you are giving yourself a second chance of winning the pot by making your opponent fold.
This additional value increases your chances of winning the pot when making a bet and is called the 'fold equity'
For example, lets say you have a strong but easily beatable hand and you think it is 50/50 that your opponent holds a better hand. So your chances here are 50% to win the hand. If you make a bet then you think there is a 50% chance that your opponent will fold as his hand is not that strong either.
- You now have a 50% chance you opponent will fold and you win the pot +50%
- Even if he does call you will win 50% of the time with a better hand +25% (50%x50%)
- So your overall chance of winning the hand is 75% if you make a bet vs 50% if you do not bet.
By sticking to this tight aggressive style and paying attention to what types of players your opponents are you will be able to greatly improve your game by not only ensuring you are playing good poker, but also taking advantage of the style of play of you opponents and optimising your play to counter it.
Tip 3 – No Limit Holdem Bankroll
Another essential basis of any No Limit Holdem Strategy is to protect your bankroll. Just like any other finances you should monitor and manage your bankroll to ensure that you are playing at the correct stake levels.
Poker is a game of skill, but it is also based on probability like any card game, and you are always reliant on the draw of the cards.
Good poker players understand the probability and odds of the cards they need arriving but no matter how well you play and how much your strategy is designed to maximise the odds in your favour there is a chance that the smaller odds will hit and you will lose.
In the long term this is not a problem, because if you play correctly and with the odds in your favour then the laws of probability dictate that over the long term you will come out on top.
So as part of a good strategy we must protect ourselves against the short term fluctuations of the lessor odds hitting and beating us. This is often called 'variance' in poker.
We also need to protect against us having an off day and playing badly in a poker session, making incorrect decisions – there are all sorts of reasons this may happen, tiredness, illness, distractions.
To provide this protection we establish bankroll management rules which say that we only sit down at a table with a small percentage of our total bankroll. This way if you have a losing session then you have plenty of further buy-ins with which to play another time and recover those losses.
Play free new online slot games. Top among the poker machines to play new free slot games online include Retro Rush from IGT (96.10% RTP) and Tiger Stacks from IGT. Online casinos offer special bonuses and promotions to gamers who play their new Vegas slot machines. The penny slots are playable with as low as $1 per spin, and they are accessible on mobile devices. New Online Slot Machines. Latest Slots - Free Play - Instant Play Games. A selection of brand new free slot machine games. These are the latest genuine Vegas slots which are free to play, made by IGT, WMS, Bally, Aristocrat and Konami. With lots of new games from Betsoft, RTG, Rival Gaming and Vegas slots too, we hope you can find something you. New Online Slots. New online slot games are launched every month and on this page we bring you all of the hottest titles to hit online casinos in recent times. Slots lovers are spoilt for choice thanks to the huge selection of new slots they can take for a spin, each one offering a different and exciting opportunity to win big money and take the jackpot home. A slot game packed full of special features and bonus game rounds. This exciting hot slot is brought to you by the leaders in slot game software providers, Playtech. This slot is for players looking for that extra punch in there slot play. The Mummy is a 5 Reel, 25 Payline slot game where the highest payout is a whopping 10,000 coin jackpot.
The normal rule for No Limit bankroll management is to maintain 20 buy ins and only risk 5% of your total bankroll at any single table. A normal buy in for a table is 100 big blinds, so that would represent about 2,000 big blinds. As your bankroll grows, you can play higher stakes, if it shrinks then you may have to drop to lower stakes until it recovers.
This level of protection is required due to the volatile nature of No Limit and the potential to lose your whole buy in very quickly if it all goes wrong.
Making sure that you obey these strict set of rules is very important and the first rule of good strategy that you must learn. You can read more about bankroll management in our introduction article.
Summary
The above tips are by no means meant to be a complete strategy, they are just some introductory notes that you should understand before you start to develop a No Limit Texas Holdem Strategy.
If you would really like to improve your Texas Holdem strategy then we highly recommend the free Winning Poker Strategy Guide over on Poker Professor. This is a complete strategy course that will teach you multiple ways to improve your strategy. It will also walk you through turning $25 into $1,000 by the end of the course.
Trust & Security
I'll only recommend Safe & Trusted sites with a proven track record
By Game Type
Different rooms are better for different game types & stakes
Beginner Friendly
I'll find you a site with players of a similar skill level Golden pokies casino poker.
Promotions
I'll find you the best value Promotions, Bonus & Freebies!
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. But holding T8, you could flop a straight with 9JQ or 679.
The Best Starting Hands in Hold'em
Let's start by talking about the best starting hands, which are often referred to as ‘premium hands'. There is some disagreement amongst poker players as to which starting hands are the best, but few would dispute the value of the first of our three main groups, Aces and Kings.
Group 1: AA, KK
These two starting hands are the major players in hold'em. It's not often you'll get dealt Aces or Kings. In fact you get either Aces or Kings once in every 110 hands, so it's not nearly as often as we'd like. Aces are by far the best possible starting hand in hold'em, closely followed by Kings. However, you should be aware that even Aces or Kings can get cracked, and they don't play too well against multiple opponents. This means you should definitely be raising pre-flop to narrow the field. Extra caution is necessary when playing Kings, because if an Ace falls on the flop then you're losing to anyone who has a single Ace in their starting hand. While they are very strong hands which most players love to get, they are certainly not unbeatable.
Group 2: QQ, JJ, AKs
Queens and Jacks are great starting hands, and with either of these, you can usually be confident you have the best starting hand. Of course they are dominated by Aces and Kings, but they're a favourite against all other starting hands. While Queens and Jacks will occasionally run into a player holding either Aces or Kings, it doesn't happen too often. Play these cards strongly, and always look to raise with them.
Ace-King is known throughout the poker world as Big Slick, and when suited it's often called Super Slick. Doubledown casino. While it isn't a ‘made hand', unlike a pair, it offers great potential. It's only a big underdog to Aces and Kings, and even pairs like Queens and Jacks are only slight favourites. The beauty of AK (suited or unsuited), is that it dominates so many other hands like AQ, AJ, AT, and so on. These types of hands are the ones that players usually end up pushing all-in with late in a tournament.
Group 3: TT, AK, AQs, AJs, KQs
This next group of starting hands is also a strong bunch. You should definitely be looking to raise pre-flop with any of these hands too. We've already talked about the power of AK, but starting hands like AQs, and AJs, are also very strong and often run into weaker Ace-X combinations. Even though these are all strong starting hands, and most of the time you'll be winning pre-flop, you have to be careful – particularly a hand like KQs, which you can easily fold to a re-raise.
Suited Cards
No Limit Texas Hold'em Hands Held
You'll often hear novice players responding to questioning of why they played a particular starting hand with the line 'well, because they were suited'. Some suited cards are worth playing and it's certainly better to start with suited cards than unsuited cards. However, the odds of flopping a flush is 1 out of 118 hands (0.8%) with two suited cards, and you'll only make a flush after the river around 6.5% of the time. Don't fall into the trap of playing any two cards just because they happen to be suited – it doesn't make a big enough difference to make junk hands valuable.
Kicker Issues
The word ‘kicker' means the smaller of your two cards. Some players play a hand if it contains an Ace with any other card (such as an Ace with a 3 kicker), and this type of play ultimately cost players money and tournaments. For example, let's suppose a player calls with A6 and the flop comes A83. What does the player do? bet? call? raise? call a big raise? go all-in? What if the flop comes Q63? The player has middle pair – which is very hard to play. Hey, the flop could come A6X – the player has two pair, Aces and sixes but this happens only 1 out of 49 hands (2%). Until you learn when and how to play Ace junk (AX) go slow with it. One good thing about A junk and K junk, is that you do not need to play these hands to learn when they may be profitable. Let experience from other hands and study be your teacher.
Table Conditions
Hold'em starting hands can be a complex subject because every situation is different. If you were to ask a professional poker player, 'should I call, raise, or fold this hand pre-flop?' his response would almost certainly be 'it depends!' Here are some of the main reasons why it depends:
The Number of Players
The value of certain starting hands is very dependent upon the number of players at the table. Certain starting hands are always going to be under threat against a table of nine or ten players, but the value of these same hands increases when there are fewer players. A starting hand like KJ might be vulnerable against a full table of players, but is considered a strong hand if there are just a few other players.
Position
Your position on the poker table will be a major factor in deciding which starting hands you should play. The later your position in the betting order, the better – because you get to decide what to do after most of your opponents have acted. We'll talk much more about the importance of position throughout our lessons on Pokerology, but as a first step please see our lesson on the value of position. Playing position can elude us at first because it is a part of poker that lends itself to be exploited through experience. However, you must quickly realize that your position at the table should heavily influence the choice of starting hands that you play. Until a player has a feel or grasp for positional play, just believe and follow some of the suggestions on the subject.
A Raised Pot
Whether or not a pot has been raised should be a very important factor in your decision to play a particular starting hand. Your selection of starting hands should change when the pot has been raised by a reasonable player. If there has been a raise and a re-raise before you're due to act, then you should only consider playing with a very strong hand. Of course this will also depend on the personality types of the other players and whether the game is very loose or passive.
Starting Hand Charts
When you first start playing poker it can be helpful to use a starting hand chart as a point of reference. We've created a couple of starting hand charts that can be used by beginners. Please click on the following links to view these charts (they will open in a new window):
Each of these charts loads as a PDF, meaning they be viewed on screen, bookmarked or better still, can be printed and studied offline.
Beginners can treat starting hand charts as the gospel, but once you know enough about the game to recognize appropriate opportunities, you can deviate because your adjustment may represent a more profitable play. Our starting hand charts are a guide, not a set of intractable rules. There is no such thing as a perfect starting hand chart, because every game is different and there are many variables at work. Game texture and table conditions can't be measured and included into a neat formula.
There are many factors that may encourage you to tighten or loosen your play from our guidelines. If you have a starting hand that's not listed on the chart, then there's a good reason – it should almost always be mucked. But as in all poker decisions the phrase, 'It depends' comes to mind. However, before you decide to deviate from our guidelines, have a reason for taking such an action.
Conclusion
Don't fall into the trap of playing any two cards. Most poker players want to play hands and as a beginner it's very easy to be seduced by suited cards or picture cards, or any two-card holding that contains an Ace of a King – but if you play hold'em correctly, you're going to be selective and toss away the vast majority of hands you're dealt.
When you gain more poker playing experience you can begin to open up your range of starting hands – but until then, proceed with caution and only play the best hands. Loose, promiscuous play will get you into trouble and is the downfall of many players.
In future lessons we'll expand much more on the topics discussed in this poker lesson and get you to think beyond the actual cards you're dealt. We also have hours of video footage covering starting hand selection for both no-limit and fixed-limit hold'em – so depending upon your preference, be sure to check them out!
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By David Sasseman
David lives in Atlanta, Georgia, and has played over a million hands online and many thousands of hands in Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, and Las Vegas casinos.
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