There are many different strategies for playing poker, and which starting hands are playable from which position. However, from the fact that you’re reading this article I can assume that you’re a relative beginner to the game and looking for some guidance. Bearing that in mind, let’s look at a very simple, and often profitable, strategy for choosing which hands to play pre-flop in Texas Hold’em.
Positional Starting Hand Selection
Many players advocate adjusting which hands to play pre-flop depending on your position. While this is solid theory, it can be overly complex for the beginner who already has plenty to think about at the table. It can also be overkill in low limit games against low skilled opponents, when an even simply strategy can be profitable. For that reason, I recommend that you don’t overly concern yourself with position until you have a good grasp of the game. Don’t get me wrong – position is very important in poker, and shouldn’t be underestimated, but for a beginner a simpler strategy can be even better.
Top Ten Poker Starting Hands
If you want to win a hand of holdem it makes sense that starting with the best hand will help, right? Well this strategy comes from Phil Hellmuth, one of the best poker players of all time and winner of 11 WSOP bracelets so he knows what he’s talking about. In fact, during his early years in the game this is the exact strategy he used to be profitable in regular cash games in his local town of Madison. The strategy is simple – play tight and only see the flop if you already have one of the top ten hands in holdem. The top ten hands, in order of value are A-A, K-K, Q-Q, A-K, J-J, 10-10, 9-9, 8-8, A-Q, 7-7.
If you start by only playing those starting hands, you’ll already be well on the way to being a profitable player in limit holdem. Of course, when you’re in the big blind and there’s no raise you’ll get to enter the fray with the odd other hand too, and over time you might choose to start playing some other hands depending on the game, your opponents and your position. But starting with just this hand selection will teach you the solid basics, and may even be profitable on its own in many low limit games.
As your skills improve you’ll be able to add other hands as the situation dictates. Most advanced players can play hands like 6-6, 5-5, 4-4, 3-3, 2-2, A-X suited and K-Q when the time and situation is right, when they sense weakness in their opponent, or when they can see the flop very cheaply. Don’t be too tempted to play too many of these hands as a beginner though, as you’ll often get yourself in trouble more often than not. Work on the fundamentals first, practice, study, and then slowly begin to add these extra hands as you see fit.
No Limit Holdem Starting Hands
If you’re playing no limit then a good selection of starting hands for a beginner is the top ten, plus any pair. That gives a selection of 15 hands to play, and again just playing tight and only entering the pot on those hands will be enough to be profitable in many low stakes games. The reason that small pocket pairs are now playable is that unlike in limit holdem, if you flop trips (i.e. if you’re holding 5-5 and the flop comes 5-Q-A) you’re likely to win a very large pot against players with high pairs. You’ll miss the flop more often than not, but when you do hit you’ll win big making it more than worth it.
Again, don’t be too tempted to stray far from these starting hands as a beginner, and don’t worry too much about position for now. As your skill and experience grows you might choose to start adjusting for position, and maybe playing cards like suited connectors and A-X suited, when the situation deams it a good idea.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record I’ll say it once more – play tight and stick to these starting hands until you have a good grasp of the game. There will be plenty of time to play other hands once you have the skill and experience to play the post-flop, but until then you want to avoid hands which will cost you too much if you enter the fray and miss, or even worse catch a marginal hand which tempts to you stay in longer than you should.
Study, practice, repeat… that’s how to get better at poker!
Nice article for starting players. I’m strictly a limit player at this time with no experience in real money games, so this is good information for someone with my limited experience.