Texas Hold'em starting hands

Knowing your starting hands

The starting hands in Texas Holdem are divided into groups with different properties. The playabilty of all the starting hands is completely depending on your position and the playing conditions at the poker table. We will have a look at how the different groups should be played in the chapters “The play before the flop”, “Early position”, “Middle position” and “Late position”.

Notations

Pair – Two cards with the same value. Thes are normally divided into three different groups: High pairs: (AA-JJ), middle pairs (TT-77) and low pairs (66 and lower). You can often take the pot without having to improve your hand with the flop and the next cards. In the first place you want to play your high pairs against just a few players as you risk too much when more players are involved in the pot. A pair is not a particularly godd “drawing hand” (a hand which is improved when more cards are handed out) even though three of a kind, full house and four of a kind is within reach. Low pairs are ,in opposite to high pairs, only worth using when you want to see the flop when a sufficient number of players has put money into the pot. This is the case as a favourable flop which gives you three of a kind or better often is the only thing which can make you win with a low pair as a starting hand. A big pot is also necessary to give you correct odds in order to play a low pair. This means that you, when you win a game with three of a kind ( for instance 666) this in the long run should pay for the times you miss the flop with your low pairs. The odds have made you join the betting round. A high pair is of course always better than a low pair – and you play them differently.

Suit (s) – Two cards of the same suit are suited. Suited cards makes it easier for you to make a flush. As you probably already has understood the best thing is to have an ace at the top if you get this chance. It is good if there are many players in the pot with this kind of a starting hand as they create very strong hands if the cards are the right ones, i.e. they should be strong enough to withstand the hands of your opponents. Playing low suited cards against just one or two players is not as favourable as what you gain when making a correct move will not pay for the erroneous moves you make with these. Suited is abbreviated with the letter “s”, for instance J8s for J and 8 of the same suit. High suited cards are of course always good thanks to the possibility of in the first place getting high pairs and/or perhaps a flush. If these cards at the same time are “connectors” (this is explained below) the chances to get a straight also are increased.

Offsuited (o) – Two different cards with different colours. This is abbreviated with the letter “o”, for instance J-8o for J and 8 with different colours.

Connectors – Two cards in sequence, for instance T9, AK etc. Sometimes you speak about “one-gap-connectors” and “two-gap-connectors” in this group. This means that you have two cards with one and two gaps respectively between the cards, JK and AJ for example. It is always best if you get two cards in sequence without a gap as this increases the possibility to get a straight or at least the beginning of a straight at the flop.

Suited Connectors – Two cards in sequence and with the same colour. This gives bigger chances to get a straight as well as a flush. Suited connectors is the most obvious example of what is called “drawing hands” and often create strong hands when many cards are handed out on the table. High suited connectors are extra suitable for multiway-pots, pots where many players are involved, thanks to their properties as drawing hands. High suited connectors are of course also good in games against just a few players as then often just a high pair with good kicker-cards is enough to win.

Worth mentioning before you go on reading although it has nothing to do with starting hands is:

Outs – The number of cards in the pack of cards that help you win the pot. For example: You have AK, the flop gives A, 4, and 9. Your opinion is that another A or K will be enough for you to win. Your outs: Two more Aces plus three more Kings in the pack of cards equals five outs. This might be a bad example as you have a top pair and K as a kicker-card and still you are in quite a good position … .This is however just an example but I think you understand.

Kicker cards – Imagine that you have AK in your hand and that the flop results in A-4-8. Then you have a pair of Aces. If one of your opponents has A-3 in his hand then he also has a pair of Aces but you, for the time being, still have the best hand as your kicker card K is higher than the highest card your opponent can use in order to create the strongest hand. In this case your opponent’s kicker-card is 8 as this is the strongest card except the Ace on the table he can use.

A somewhat more difficult example: Let us say you have AQ and your opponent has AJ. All the cards are dealt and on the table there are A, Q, K, 9 and K (never mind about the colours). You might think you have the best hand but in reality you have equally strong hands because you both have the two strongest pairs AA and KK. As there is nothing called three pairs (because a maximum of 5 cards are used to create poker hand) both the players can only use the Queen as a kicker-card.

Finally an extra explanation to why for example JTs is so much better than Q8o

Possibilities to flop a straight with JT:

T J Q K A

7 8 9 T J

9 T J Q K

8 9 T J Q

+ flush possibilities

Possibilities to flop a straight with Q8:

8 9 T J Q

no flush possibilities