The most critical aspect of Texas Hold’em is choosing the correct starting hands because one should pass on balls that are less likely to win quick and high stakes with PHMACAO.
All you need to know to select a starting hand is to play your best hands and cut out the rest.
Of course, all hands have a chance, however it’s the case that some hands offer far better win likelihood than others. As a result, if you only play good hands, you will have a much higher likelihood of winning in the long term.
Basic Starting Hands
Top-Tier Starting Hands – Top 2% of Starting Hands
Good starting hands include high pairs (such as AA, KK, QQ) and strong connected hands (like AK suited).
The “s” in “AKs” means the hand is suited, which increases its strength because it has the potential to form a flush.
It’s clear that if you always get dealt top starting hands, you’ll consistently win. If you fold all other hands and only play top-tier starting hands, your long-term winning potential will be enormous. However, this strategy only works at low stakes, where few players pay attention to your folding patterns and only playing premium hands.
Second-Tier Starting Hands
If you only play super-strong starting hands, you’ll miss out on many opportunities to win with other hands that can also bring long-term profit, such as AK, AQs, AJs, KQs, JJ, and TT. These six starting hands expand your range and increase the number of times you can put money into the pot. While these hands aren’t as strong as top-tier hands, their power shouldn’t be underestimated.
Top 10 Texas Hold’em Starting Hands
The following top 10 starting hands will help you win consistently in poker (and you should also consider adding the top 20 hands if you’re in a good position):
- Ace of Diamonds and Ace of Clubs
- King of Clubs and King of Spades
- Queen of Spades and Queen of Diamonds
- Ace of Hearts and King of Hearts (suited)
- Ace of Clubs and Queen of Clubs (suited)
- Jack of Diamonds and Jack of Spades
- King of Diamonds and Queen of Diamonds (suited)
- Ace of Spades and Jack of Spades (suited)
- Ace of Diamonds and King of Clubs
- Ten of Clubs and Ten of Hearts
As your poker skills improve, you can widen your hand range and include marginal hands like suited connectors (e.g., 67s, 78s, etc.). However, if you’re a beginner, it’s best to stick to strong hands, as this will make post-flop decisions easier.
Correlation Between Starting Hands and Position
Your position at the table is critical when choosing your hand range.
When you’re in early position (EP), you should only play strong hands and narrow your hand range compared to late position (LP). In early position, you should stick to the top two tiers of starting hands and avoid weaker hands like AQo, AJs, AT, KQs. On the other hand, when you’re in late position, you can comfortably play these hands, provided there hasn’t been any significant action before you, like a 3-bet or all-in.
Why Is Position Important When Selecting Starting Hands?
If you’re the first to act, you’ll be at a considerable disadvantage compared to players acting after you. Therefore, to avoid this disadvantage, you’ll want to avoid putting money into the pot unless you have premium hands. Acting first means you have less information about your opponents. If you’re playing a middle-tier hand, you won’t know if you have the best hand. These “guessing” situations can lead to significant losses, so it’s easier to stick to strong hands in early position, making it easier to determine if you have the best hand.
The Importance of Choosing the Right Starting Hands
Choosing the right starting hands protects you from tricky post-flop situations, especially when you’ve just sat down at the table and have little information about your opponents.
Example:
Let’s say you ignore starting hand selection and decide to call a raise with K♦10♥. The flop comes K♥8♣2♠, giving you top pair. Your opponent bets, and you call. The turn is 4♠, and your opponent continues to bet. You call again. The river brings 7♣, and your opponent bets once more. You call with top pair and see your opponent reveal K♠Q♥. You lose because your kicker is weaker.
This is a common mistake that many beginners make, and it can easily be avoided by selecting better starting hands. Top pair is strong, but you’ll often lose to a better kicker. That’s why having two big cards (like KQs) is always better than just one (like K2s).
Make sure you have two good cards before you put money in the pot. Holding an Ace with a low kicker often leads to more losses than wins.
Be careful cold calling raises, and be careful coming along with hands like A4 w/ 7 or K7, because more often than not they make trouble for you rather than opportunities. Always having better kicker than our opponents leads us to have an upper hand in these situations and at the same time punishing those who play weak kickers.
As you get more poker experience you can widen your starting hand range and try playing with different line up. But for newbies, you should be playing big cards. This is the best strategy to give you most pot profit in poker.