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. A lot of Texas Hold 'Em strategy is based on the cards in your hand. You must be willing to suffer through a series of poor hands (e.g. 5-8, 2-6, 4-9) without getting impatient. The good hands will come, eventually, and you'll be in a better position to take advantage of them if you don't waste your chips trying to get something out of nothing.

There are over one hundred possible starting hands in Texas Holdem. That’s just if you take unique combinations. Start taking into account suit, and the number increases dramatically.

Statistically speaking, you’re just as likely to get any one of these starting hands as any other, though there are certain hands you’d much rather get than others. Also, in terms of game theory, some opening hands are a lot more interesting than others. You know what you’re going to do with a pair of aces. Do you know what you’re going to do with ace-two though?

Poker Hands Texas Hold'em

Unfortunately, it’s impossible in place to go through the strategy of every opening hand in poker, we can highlight a certain number of more interesting hands. I’ve chosen five hands from the list of possible hands to discuss below in greater detail. You are likely to run into them if you play often enough, and their relative strengths present interesting challenges.

1 – Pair of Twos

Congratulations… You have a pair. Aren’t you lucky?

Sure. Go ahead and start grumbling now because of all the pairs you have. This one is undoubtedly, statistically the worse pair you can have. Yes, it will beat any hand that doesn’t have a pair, but how often are you likely to have any opponents that don’t have anything and stay in the game?

The answer is not that many. Don’t worry, though, starting off with a pair of twos isn’t as bad as you think if one of two things are true:

1. You have position
2. There aren’t many people at the table

According to computer models, you are dead even to win with a pair of twos in straight-up play and you will win about a third of the time in a three-player game. Your odds of winning drop off pretty dramatically from there, however. The only thing that could save you, though, is position.

In a lot of ways, a pair of twos is like a stealth attack. As your opponents survey the board and try to figure out what you have, they’re probably not thinking you have pocket twos. So, if you draw into a set or even manage to get three, four, five, six on the board, there’s a chance you can sneak up on the others and win some money.

Still, to win with this hand more often than not, you need to know what the other players are going to do. That’s why you need position. If you find that everyone else is betting aggressive, there’s a good chance your twos are no good, so get out of the hand. If, however, everyone is lukewarm, you might have some money to make.

If you’re in a game with any more than three people and you don’t have position, fold and fight another day. If you do have position, call any modest bets or make a medium bet of your own. If someone comes at you hard and raises or re-raises, unless you are working their tells, fold and get them in the next hand.

After the flop and each subsequent card, take the pulse of the table. If someone starts to bid more aggressively and you didn’t get a third two, you shouldn’t be out too much money.

After the last card is dealt and no one feels good about their cards, you have to decide how aggressive you want to be. My advice is to always keep things on the low to moderate side of bidding (think fractions of a pot). Even if someone missed their draw, you might be able to get money from them if you bet lower amounts than getting too aggressive in the end.

2 – Pair of 10s

In some ways, a pair of 10s is going to be like a pair of twos. There are a lot more hands that pocket 10s will beat than pocket twos, but there are a bunch of hands that you’d probably rather have.
Then again, this is poker, and you have to play the hand you were dealt and, surprisingly, pocket 10s are a lot better than you might think. In head-to-head play, pocket 10s win about three-fourths of the time and rarely wins less than 20% of the time, no matter the number of opponents.

On the other hand, pocket 10s don’t beat a lot of hands that people are likely to keep. Also, 10s can appear at the end, middle, or beginning of a straight, so you need to be careful that if you get a set of 10s, that someone else didn’t just complete a straight and are now set to take you down.

Therefore, you really have two options with pocket 10s and how you play them is up to you and your playstyle. If you like to play tight or are light on chips and you have more than two opponents, toss the 10s. You’d do better not taking the risk.

If you’re in the mood to get risky or you have a fewer number of opponents, play 10s like they were much better cards. Be aggressive, make the table think you’re sitting on a gold mine, at least until the flop. If you get your set and there’s no obvious straight draw, keep playing aggressively.

If you don’t get that set, you can still play tough because you do have good cards, and you should be able to scare off the table with them if you bet from a position of strength.

3 – King-Queen Suited

King-queen suited is going to win the hand a little over 60% in head-to-head games, but quickly loses its power in larger games. You have the start off a pretty powerful straight and the chance to make two decent pairs.
If you are dealt king-queen suited to start off, you have to at least make a bet preflop and call just about anything unless someone goes all-in or is just being crazy.

The thing you have to remember is that your opening hand is worthless without some help. You need to be dealt another king or a queen while avoiding an ace to have a winning hand. That’s what you need to call preflop so that you can see what help the board gives you.

Ideally, you want a queen on the flop with no ace. This gives you the best pair with the second best kicker. Either way, feel free to bet aggressively throughout the hand until an ace shows up. Then, you have to assume that someone has a literal ace in the hole unless their betting shows you otherwise.

One last thing, keep an eye out for a flush. That’s one thing this starting hand gives that you can use to your advantage and is another reason to see that flop.

4 – Ace-Two Offsuit

Texas Holdem Hands Chart

The strategy for ace-two is a lot like the strategy for pocket twos. It’s good at small tables or when you have position.

If neither of those two things are true, you might want to consider folding. Yes, it can feel painful to fold an ace, since it’s an ace after all. However, there are others at the table who probably also have aces in the hole and chances are, they have better kickers than you.

5 – Queen-Jack Offsuit

Percentage-wise, queen-jack suited wins almost the same amount as king-queen suited. It also has a sharp drop off in its efficiency as the number of players climb.

Still, in a lot of ways, this hand should be played about the same way as king-queen suited except that you don’t have the chance to earn a flush draw. You also can’t be quite as aggressive with queen-jack as you can with king-queen because jacks are easier to beat than kings.

Still, preflop, bet with confidence. Feel free to call any reasonable opening bet and don’t be afraid to call a bet outside your comfort zone so that you can see the flop. Also, don’t be afraid to make your own bet preflop, though I wouldn’t bet a significant amount because there are several ways to beat you.

Once you see the flop, you have decisions to make. If you didn’t flop a pair or aren’t set up for a straight, it might be a good time to get out of the hand since your chances of success aren’t as high as king-queen. Then again, if no one is betting aggressively, there’s no harm in riding the hand out and testing your luck.

Conclusion

Hopefully, seeing how these five hands can be played will give you confidence next time you see them. As always, poker is a dynamic game and circumstances can change. The best poker strategy will change from hand to hand, but I think the following strategy will help make you some money if you follow it.

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.

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).

Alternative means of making this calculation

First Step

As confirmed above.

There are 1326 possible combination of opening hand.

Second Step

There are 6 different combos of each pair. 9h9c, 9h9s, 9h9d, 9c9s, 9c9d, 9d9s. Therefore, there are 78 possible combinations of pocket pairs (6 multiplied by 13 i.e. 22-AA)

To calculate the odds of being dealt a pair

78 (the number of any particular pair being dealt. As above) divided by 1326 (possible opening hands)

78/1326 = 0.058 or 5.8%

• Suited hands, which contain two cards of the same suit (e.g. A♣6♣). 23.5% of all starting hands are suited.

Probability of first card is 1.0 (any of the 52 cards)Probability of second hand suit matching the first:There are 13 cards per suit, and one is in your hand leaving 12 remaining of the 51 cards remaining in the deck. 12/51=.2353 or 23.5%

• Offsuit hands, which contain two cards of a different suit and rank (e.g. K♠J♥). 70.6% of all hands are offsuit hands

Offsuit pairs = 78Other offsuit hands = 936

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.

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^[1] 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:

Hands To Fold In Texas Hold Em

Chen formula[edit]

The 'Chen Formula' is a way to compute the 'power ratings' of starting hands that was originally developed by Bill Chen.^[2]

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]

Texas Hold Em Winning Poker Hands

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.^[3]

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.'^[4][5] 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. ^David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth (1999). Hold 'em Poker for Advanced Players. Two Plus Two Publications. ISBN1-880685-22-1
2. ^Hold'em Excellence: From Beginner to Winner by Lou Krieger, Chapter 5, pages 39 - 43, Second Edition
3. ^http://www.pokerroom.com/poker/poker-school/ev-stats/total-stats-by-card/^{[dead link]}
4. ^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.
5. ^Martain, Tim (2007-07-15). 'A little luck helps out'. Sunday Tasmanian. Retrieved 2010-01-10.

Top 15 Hands Texas Hold Em