• Poker Starting Hand Chart
• Poker Starting Hands Ranking

The two cards that you are dealt at the start of a hand in Texas Hold'em are your weapons. If you want to play a hand, your cards need to be strong enough to fight against your opponents' cards to win the pot. At the core of every winning poker player is good starting hand strategy. Texas Hold'em starting hands table. Oct 01, 2019  In his famous Super / System, universally regarded as the bible of poker strategy books, poker legend Doyle Brunson devoted the third chapter to his list of 10 trouble hands – or starting hands that should only be played in certain situations if at all. And Ace Queen was at.

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. The player's 'playing hand', which will be compared against that of each competing player, is the best 5-card poker hand available from his two hole cards and the five community cards. Unless otherwise specified, here the term hand applies to the player's two hole cards, or starting hand.

• 2Limit hand rankings

Essentials[edit]

There are 1326 distinct possible combinations of two hole cards from a standard 52-card deck in hold 'em, but since suits have no relative value in this poker variant, many of these hands are identical in value before the flop. For example, A♥J♥ and A♠J♠ are identical in value, because each is a hand consisting of an ace and a jack of the same suit.

Therefore, there are 169 non-equivalent starting hands in hold 'em, which is the sum total of : 13 pocket pairs, 13 × 12 / 2 = 78 suited hands and 78 unsuited hands (13 + 78 + 78 = 169).

These 169 hands are not equally likely. Hold 'em hands are sometimes classified as having one of three 'shapes':

• Pairs, (or 'pocket pairs'), which consist of two cards of the same rank (e.g. 9♠9♣). One hand in 17 will be a pair, each occurring with individual probability 1/221 (P(pair) = 3/51 = 1/17).

An alternative means of making this calculation

First Step As confirmed above.

There are 2652 possible combination of opening hand.

Second Step

There are 6 different combos of each pair. 9h9c, 9h9s, 9h9d, 9c9s, 9c9d, 9d9s

To calculate the odds of being dealt a pair

2652 (possible opening hands) divided by 12 (the number of any particular pair being dealt. As above)

2652/12 = 221

• Suited hands, which contain two cards of the same suit (e.g. A♣6♣). Four hands out of 17 will be suited, and each suited configuration occurs with probability 2/663 (P(suited) = 12/51 = 4/17).

• Offsuit hands, which contain two cards of a different suit and rank (e.g. K♠J♥). Twelve out of 17 hands will be nonpair, offsuit hands, each of which occurs with probability 2/221 (P(offsuit non-pair) = 3*(13-1)/51 = 12/17).

It is typical to abbreviate suited hands in hold 'em by affixing an 's' to the hand, as well as to abbreviate non-suited hands with an 'o' (for offsuit). That is,

QQ represents any pair of queens,

KQ represents any king and queen,

AKo represents any ace and king of different suits, and

JTs represents any jack and ten of the same suit.

There are 25 starting hands with a probability of winning at a 10-handed table of greater than 1/7.^[1]

Limit hand rankings[edit]

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[edit]

David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth^[2] 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. Hands without a number are the weakest starting hands. As a general rule, books on Texas hold'em present hand strengths starting with the assumption of a nine or ten person table. The table below illustrates the concept:

Chen formula[edit]

The 'Chen Formula' is a way to compute the 'power ratings' of starting hands that was originally developed by Bill Chen.^[3]

Highest Card

Based on the highest card, assign points as follows:

Ace = 10 points, K = 8 points, Q = 7 points, J = 6 points.

10 through 2, half of face value (10 = 5 points, 9 = 4.5 points, etc.)

Pairs

For pairs, multiply the points by 2 (AA=20, KK=16, etc.), with a minimum of 5 points for any pair. 55 is given an extra point (i.e., 6).

Suited

Add 2 points for suited cards.

Closeness

Subtract 1 point for 1 gappers (AQ, J9)

2 points for 2 gappers (J8, AJ).

4 points for 3 gappers (J7, 73).

5 points for larger gappers, including A2 A3 A4

Add an extra point if connected or 1-gap and your highest card is lower than Q (since you then can make all higher straights)

Phil Hellmuth's: 'Play Poker Like the Pros'[edit]

Phil Hellmuth's 'Play Poker Like the Pros' book published in 2003.

Statistics based on real online play[edit]

Statistics based on real play with their associated actual value in real bets.^[4]

Nicknames for starting hands[edit]

In poker communities, it is common for hole cards to be given nicknames. While most combinations have a nickname, stronger handed nicknames are generally more recognized, the most notable probably being the 'Big Slick' - Ace and King of the same suit, although an Ace-King of any suit combination is less occasionally referred to as an Anna Kournikova, derived from the initials AK and because it 'looks really good but rarely wins.'^[5][6] Hands can be named according to their shapes (e.g., paired aces look like 'rockets', paired jacks look like 'fish hooks'); a historic event (e.g., A's and 8's - dead man's hand, representing the hand held by Wild Bill Hickok when he was fatally shot in the back by Jack McCall in 1876); many other reasons like animal names, alliteration and rhyming are also used in nicknames.

Notes[edit]

1. ^No-Limit Texas Hold'em by Angel Largay
2. ^David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth (1999). Hold 'em Poker for Advanced Players. Two Plus Two Publications. ISBN1-880685-22-1
3. ^Hold'em Excellence: From Beginner to Winner by Lou Krieger, Chapter 5, pages 39 - 43, Second Edition
4. ^http://www.pokerroom.com/poker/poker-school/ev-stats/total-stats-by-card/
5. ^Aspden, Peter (2007-05-19). 'FT Weekend Magazine - Non-fiction: Stakes and chips Las Vegas and the internet have helped poker become the biggest game in town'. Financial Times. Retrieved 2010-01-10.
6. ^Martain, Tim (2007-07-15). 'A little luck helps out'. Sunday Tasmanian. Retrieved 2010-01-10.

Hand Guide: Preflop > Flop > Turn > River

The Texas Holdem hand guide below will take you through each stage of a poker hand from the preflop round to the river, and give you a brief overview of the strategy you should try and employ as well as the thought processes behind making profitable decisions at each stage of the hand.

Knowing how to play a poker hand well from start to finish is not an easy skill to learn. Many players can play certain rounds well, but struggle on others. It is important to learn how to play each round profitably.

The individual Texas Holdem strategy articles found on this site will help to fine tune different aspects of your game, but it is here that you will find the fundamental principles behind playing a winning Texas Holdem hand. There is also a list of useful articles at the end of each guide for further information on different concepts and plays that you can use at each stage in the hand.

Individual betting round strategy articles.

Before the flop is where it all starts, so learn how to get the foundations started correctly. This article focuses on good starting hand selection, along with key position tips and a quick guide to optimum preflop betting.

Many of the decisions that you will make at the poker table will be based on the flop or will stem from the flop later in the hand. This article highlights the importance of being able to identify the different textures of flop and the best strategies for dealing with them.

The turn is often forgotten about in the Texas Holdem strategy world but can often prove to be a very important street. So don't forget about it and learn how to play it well.

Now all of the cards are out and its time to make the best 5-card hand possible. Pick up some key tips on how to play when you have the best of it and when you have the worst of it.

Playing a good Poker hand is not always easy, as there are always going to be opportunities to make mistakes along the way. Use the tips in this article to help yourself make more profitable decisions on each betting round.

Bonus Article:Poker Mistakes - Avoid the most common mistakes when playing a hand.

Playing a hand in Texas Hold'em.

These articles are quite lengthy, but they are actually as condensed as I could make them without leaving out any tips or strategy that I thought was vital to being able to play each betting round successfully. However, although these articles should prove to be a handy guide for you, you should try your best to learn from them, and not rely on using them every time you make a decision at the Texas Hold'em poker table.

Try not to refer to these guides too often whilst playing poker. Learn from these articles as best as you can and use your own judgment when making decisions at the poker table.

Poker Starting Hand Chart

Being able to stand on your own two feet and make decisions for yourself is what is going to help you develop into the best player that you can be. So be prepared to eventually move away from using guides, and try to use your head as much as you can during play. Ask yourself questions like:

• What do I expect to achieve with this play?
• What am I going to do on the next betting round if I make this play?
• How do I think my opponent is going to react to this play?

The more questions you ask yourself, the more refined and calculated your plays will be. A winning poker player is a thinking poker player, so you're going to have to use that logic of yours if you want to win money. If you do not use your head, you may as well play online casino games instead.

Poker Starting Hands Ranking

Poker is a game of skill, so use your ability to get the better of your opponents.