Texas Holdem Starting Hands Guide
This article will discuss texas hold’em starting hands. Did you know that as a new hold’em player one of the best improvements you can make to your own game when you first start playing poker is tightening your hand range by playing fewer hands.
The main goal is to only play only premium poker hands which can make big hands once the community cards are dealt. Because you are playing strong hands, you will know whether your hand is best pretty much always, which enables you to avoid tough spots post flop.
In texas hold’em there is 169 different starting hands, but all of them are not created equal. In fact, many of them are rubbish hands which are not profitable to play, which is why you should throw hands with no potential in the muck.
The texas holdem poker starting hands can be grouped into different categories, according to hand strength and potential to make a big hand. Which grouping you should play will depend on your position at the table. The hand grouping below is suitable for no-limit texas hold’em full ring games, which can have up to 10 players.
Premium Starting Hands
With premium hands there is a very good chance you have the best hand. The ideal scenario is to try and narrow down the field to 1 or 2 callers. Premium hands include AQ+,JJ+ and you should raise these hands from all positions at the table. Since you are open raising with such a tight range, you will usually have a very strong hand on the flop, and a standard continuation bet will take down the pot. Even when you get called if you have a top pair top kicker hand, its still usually the best hand. However, if your hand doesn’t improve to better then a one pair hand, be cautious of tight passive players who are betting strong on the river, they likely have you beat.
Small and Medium Pocket Pairs
This grouping is another powerful set of hands, because of the set mining power and ability to flop big hands. If you are raising a tight range of 10% of hands in early and middle position, your range can include all pocket pairs. Many players tend to overplay top pair hands, so flopping a set usually makes a lot of money.
Good Starting Hands
With good hands you are looking for the flop to hit you hard. The hands include suited broadway hands, suited aces, and suited connectors, and gap connectors, so hands like KTs, 78s, J9s, A4s, etc. These hands are considered speculative because they need to improve a lot to make the best hand. The great thing about speculative hands is that they can be disguised monsters and immensely profitable, especially in big multi-way pots. When you hit the flop, there is a very good chance you will get paid off, especially if there are weak poker players at the table.
Junk Hands
If the hands falls in a category not in the above grouping of starting hands, then they are considered junk hands. When you are getting impatient as a result of being card dead, resist the urge to play junk hands because the odds are not in your favor of making a huge hand. Even when you make top pair with stuff like A3o, you can’t be sure that you have the best hand even when you make top pair, and if there is someone showing aggression in the hand, you likely have the worst kicker.
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