Texas Holdem Starting Hands
There are many stages to Texas
hold’em hands and the first and possibly most important is deciding
which starting hands to play. Why is this so important? Mistakes in poker tend
to compound as you continue in a hand.
Mistakes on early streets can lead to bigger mistakes on later streets that
can lead to massive mistakes in the end. If you start out with a good foundation,
you reduce your likelihood of making huge errors.
Types of Starting Hands
There are many different types of starting hands to consider in Texas hold’em
and not all of them are playable. The best hands are the premium
hands. These are hands like the big pairs, jacks, queens, kings, aces and
the other big cards, AK, AQ, KQ.
Give a little bonus to suited cards that are close together. After these are
the medium pairs and the suited connectors, like JT of the same suit.
Then there
are small pairs and small suited connectors, and finally there are rag hands,
which have no intrinsic value.
Premium Hands
Premium hands are hands you will almost always want to play and with which
you will usually want to raise. If someone has raised before you, your hand
will need to be stronger to continue because some of these premium hands are
“trouble” hands. That is to say, they are strong enough that you
will have trouble releasing them later, but other strong hands easily dominate
them.
For example, KQ looks good, but if someone has raised already there is a fair
chance he may be holding AK or AQ. If he is and you pair one of your cards,
it will be very hard for you not to lose a lot of chips on the hand.
Pairs and Suited Connectors
With most pairs and suited connectors, you are trying to connect with the flop.
With a pair, you hope to flop a set and with suited connectors, you hope to
hit a flush or straight draw. If you miss, it’s usually best not to continue
with the hand, unless you intend to run a bluff or sense the flop missed your
opponent as well.
Other Hands
It can be okay to occasionally play unusual hands like 92 suited. When you
do, it should be with a plan, such as that you will raise before the flop and
then bluff throughout the hand, or that you will fold unless you hit trips on
the flop. You should rarely make plays like these, usually in late position
when you have the most information.