Starting Hands to Play With — Texas Hold’em
Playing Texas Hold’em is an art. You need to know the winning probability or the odds of a hand to be able to play to win.
If Math is not your cup of tea, then just remember the following starting hands that you should or shouldn’t play with.
Paired hands
A paired hand of hole cards is good to have, but as the value of the pair decreases, the value of your hand decreases, too.
1. Monster Pairs
AA, KK and QQ are big pairs. They are called “Monster Hands”, and they are always good to play with!
2. Medium-sized pairs
JJ, 10 10, 9 9 and 8 8 fall in this category. You have to play carefully with these pairs. They are good, but not THAT good. When the flop is dealt, a player holding AQ might make a pair bigger than you.
3. Small pairs
Pairs from 7 7 and smaller are considered small. They are okay hands, and you have to be cautious to play with them. If you make a full house or three of a kind or such hands with them, you may win. You may lose at the showdown, if the game reaches to that.
Non-paired hands
It’s not as easy and straightforward to judge non-paired cards as it is with paired cards. Some non-paired hands, however, can be very strong.
1. Two High Value cards
Getting higher value cards is important in non-paired hands. If you have an AK, then if there is a K 10 and 8 in the flop, then you make a BIG pair of K, and have Ace as your kicker.
If you have one high value card, then your cards might not be that good.
2. Suited cards
You can make a flush if you have suited hole cards.
3. Suited connectors
These are suited cards that have consecutive ranking. Such hole cards are great. In this, higher the cards, the better. e.g. AK or KQ suited are great cards. You have a great chance to make a flush or straight.
4. Connected, non-suited cards
Connected and non-suited cards are also good. Again, higher the value, the better. You can make a straight with these cards. As the gap between your two cards increases, they are less likely to hit a straight.
5. Low, Non-suited and unconnected cards
7 2 non-suited is a no, no, as there is very less probability to make a straight or flush or any other good hand with these cards.
Keep these guidelines in mind before putting in your chips. It’s always better to play smartly.
You can bluff, but there is a right time and place for that. We will cover that in a later post.
Till then, you practice playing with the good starting hands listed above.
Play more, win more!
