Starting Hand Selection – Texas Hold'em

Starting Hand Selection, the Most Important Fundamental of Poker

One of the most important skills for a poker player is starting hand selection. What we mean is: which hands should you enter a pot with and which ones should you fold. The number of hands that are actually playable in Texas Hold'em is limited. With a good knowledge of the best ones and a little patience, you will be able to improve your game a lot.

For the purposes of this article, we will only cover the best starting hands. These are the suggested hands for beginners in poker. A wider variety of hands can be chosen as your skill level increases.

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Special Hands (Monsters)

The special hands (monster hands or premium hands) are the most powerful hands in Texas Holdem. These hands will consistently win and keep you ahead of your opponents. The special hands, listed in order of strength, are:

• Pair of Aces (AA)
• Pair of Kings (KK)
• Pair of Queens (QQ)
• Ace and King (suited or not) (AKs or AKo)
• Pair of Jacks (JJ)

These are the most powerful starting hands, and are generally playable from any position at the table (although be careful when playing a pair of jacks in early position). Although these are strong hands, it is worth watching the action of opponents in better positions.

The hands in this section should be played aggressively. You should try to reduce the number of opponents, as in a pot with many players, the chance of winning decreases. We suggest entering with bets or raises (raises or re-raises) from any position, being more cautious with JJ.

Excellent hands

This group of hands is also powerful, but may not be suitable in every situation as is the case with special hands. The excellent hands, in order of strength, are:

• Pair of Tens (TT)
• Pair of Nines (99)
• Pair of Eights (88)
• Ace and Queen (suited or unsuited) (AQs or AQo)
• Pair of Sevens (77)

These are certainly playable hands in middle and late position, but careful evaluation and knowledge of your opponents are required to play them in early position. The strategy with these hands is also to be aggressive before the flop, with the goal of limiting your opponents. If your hand is a pair of sevens or eights, and you are up against one opponent, you are probably ahead. Against multiple opponents, however, your chances are significantly reduced, and you will probably need to improve to trips if you want to come out on top.

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Other Helpful Hands

This group of hands includes those that you should have in your arsenal as you become more experienced in the game. Hands such as KQ suited or unsuited and pairs below seven belong to this group. The most important aspect when playing these hands is to not enter the pot if you are in bad positions (the starting ones), and to know how to fold if you do not make a good play on the flop. Low pairs don't usually succeed without improving.

• King and Queen (KQs or KQo)
• Pair of Twos (22)
• Pair of Threes (33)
• Pair of Fours (44)
• Pair of Fives (55)
• Pair of Sixes (66)
• Ace and lower suited Queen (AXs)

“Trap” hands

Avoid playing with these hands as much as possible. These are common mistakes made by beginners in the game.

Lone Ace (Ax): for example A3, A6… – dangerous hands. If you complete a pair of aces on the board, your “kicker” is very low, with a high chance of being beaten by someone who has a higher one. The same thing for a solitary King (Kx).

Suited hands: A hand with two cards of the same suit is only 3% better than a hand of the same suit but of different suits. Suited hands only complete the flush 6% of the time. So playing with hands like 72s, 94s, just because they are of the same suit, is a big mistake. Furthermore, if you form a flush and your opponent has a higher one, you will lose a lot of chips because of it.

Connectors: These are hands that look good, like “23”, “45”, but in practice they win pots at a low percentage. These are hands to be played by those who are more experienced, only in good positions, and knowing how to fold if they don’t make good plays on the flop.

Conclusions

The most important idea to remember is to play quality starting hands according to your position. If you can become a master at hand selection and maintain your discipline, you will be better off than the vast majority of online Texas Hold'em players.

Have a good sense of the value of your position at the poker table is a key factor in determining whether your hand is good enough. There are hands that can be folded in first position, but can be raised on the button (e.g.: 77, QJ, among others).

Another important factor is the number of opponents. The more people active in the round, the less likely your hand will win.

In conclusion, if you have the feeling that your starting hand is weak and that you shouldn't play the round, you're probably right. Fold it and wait for a playable hand!

Observations

• It is important to say that in this article we are talking about full tables, nine or ten players. At tables with fewer opponents, hand selection starts to become more liberal, and hands like suited low connectors (e.g. 56s) or off-suit medium connectors (e.g. 9To) start to become reasonable options.
• Another situation in which it is worth being liberal is in plays with several opponents already in the hand. Example: you are on the dealer button, and 5 players have already entered the hand with the minimum bet. In this case, more “speculative” hands start to have value, since the odds are very favorable. We will talk more about this reasoning in intermediate and advanced articles.

Article Glossary

Card codes: In the articles we use internationally recognized codes for cards. AKs means Ace and King “suited”, that is, of the same suit. AQo means Ace and Queen “off-suit”, that is, of different suits. Ax means Ace and any other low card. T means “10”.