Below you'll find a list of Texas Hold'em starting hands organized by relative strength.The following charts contains every 2-card possible combination you can be dealt in Texas Hold'em. Each hand is followed by its long-term winning percentage (out of 100, of course) against a specific number of opponents holding random cards. Poker is all about making the best five-card poker hand from the seven cards available (five community cards plus your own two hole cards). That means in the event of a tie with four of a kind, three of a kind, two pair, one pair, or high card, a side card, or 'kicker', comes into play to decide who wins the pot.
The strength of your starting hand in Texas Hold'em can help you determine your chances of winning, even before the remaining cards are dealt. From a pair of aces — the strongest starting hand — to a 2 and a 7, knowing the strength of your starting hand is an important part of your success at the table. When playing Texas Hold'em you need to know which starting hands are worth staying in with—and which you should fold.
Having a strong starting hand can help you determine your chances of winning even before the flop is dealt. In general, you're a strong contender if your starting hand contains:
Beyond these cards, you'll also often be happy to see cards in sequence, particularly the high cards and face cards, and pairs in your starting hand. While some of these hands aren't always deemed the ideal hands, they can sometimes pay off if you're willing to take a risk. Don't forget the added bonus if your cards are all in the same suit, too. A flush, especially a straight flush or royal flush, can often win you the game. Again, the flop will play a major role in just how strong your chances are at winning, so assess carefully and determine how much risk you're willing to take.
The specific sequence of cards and the order in which they rank is an important aspect of the game. Studying up on the best starting hands in Texas Hold'em can help improve your game and your odds at winning the pot.
A strong starting hand might also encourage you to make a strong blind (your first bet).
When you're dealt your starting hand, some combinations greatly reduce your chances of winning. These are generally low numbers that are not in sequence or matched. You might consider folding early if your two cards are:
The strategy of what to hold, and why, takes a bit to master, so studying the worst starting hands in Texas Hold'em, even more, can help you improve your game.
Play only the cards in the 10-best list and always fold those in the worst hands list. Following this strategy may improve your results. However, there's no guarantee that receiving a strong starting hand will take the round, or that a weak starting hand is a definite loss. You never know how the flop may run, and while an unsuited 2 and 4 might seem like one to deal, sometimes you'll be pleasantly surprised with a two-pair or even a full house. Study up on the various hands you're aiming for.
How you approach the game will also differ based on the game itself. For example, if you're playing No-Limit Hold 'em, knowing the top No-Limit Hold'em hands can help you better understand how to play them.
As your skill increases, you'll also want to learn how position affects your Hold'em starting hand decisions. The more you learn, the more you'll realize how important your starting hands are to your bottom line. Play the good hands and fold the bad, and you'll be well on your way to becoming an expert at Hold'em.
Poker Hands: An Introduction
Poker is a pretty straightforward game. All you have to do is build a hand that’s strong enough to beat everyone else’s – or trick your opponents that you do have a strong hand regardless of what cards you actually have – to win.
But how exactly do you gauge the strength of your hand? Well, there’s a table below that shows you all the hands at your disposal and how each one of them ranks with respect to all the others. But before we get to that, let us first go over some of the basics:
(h) Hearts (d) Diamonds (c) Clubs (s) Spades
Simply put, a poker hand is just a collection of specific cards. At the end of each game (i.e., the showdown stage), all active players must compare their respective hands to determine a winner (or winners in case there’s an unbreakable tie). The player or players with the strongest hand wins the pot.
In most cases (i.e., in standard games like Texas Holdem and Omaha), a hand is made up of five cards. Even in seven-card poker, only the strongest five-card hands get considered. The only difference is that each player gets more cards to work within seven-card games.
The only exception to this five-card hand rule are three-card poker games, where, as the name suggests, only three cards are used to make a hand.
Rarity dictates how strong a certain poker hand is. The more difficult it is to get, the higher it ranks. Now, while we won’t actually show you the math behind it in this post, if you enjoy working with numbers or are just curious, then there’s a detailed write-up on the subject right here.
Well, it’s a technique called “bluffing.” It basically entails making your opponents believe that you either have a strong or weak hand depending on how you want them to act. By making other players believe that you have a strong hand, you can force those with weak hands to fold, thereby decreasing the total number of people you have to compete with come showdown time. By acting weak, on the other hand, you can bait them into raising the pot, which ultimately means more money for you at the end of the game.
All it takes is a bit of acting. Of course, being able to read your opponents would help a lot as well. But be sure to not overuse this technique to prevent your opponents from seeing a pattern and countering.
Now that we’re done with the basics, let’s move on to the hand rankings:
0.000154%
The top hand in poker, it consists of five suited cards of consecutive values starting with an ace.
Ex: As Ks Qs Js 10s
0.00139%
It’s essentially a clone of a royal flush but it uses a king or lower as its highest card instead of an ace.
Ex: Js 10s 9s 8s 7s
0.0240%
This hand is made up of four cards of the same value and a fifth kicker card.
Ex: 3d 3h 3s 3c 9s
0.1441%
A trip and pair combo.
Ex: Kd Kh Ks 4s 4c
0.1965%
Five suited cards of any value.
Ex: Ad 7d 6d 4d 2d
0.3925%
As you may have guessed, this hand consists of five cards in sequence. The suits do not matter.
Ex: 6d 5c 4s 3c 2h
2.1128%
Also known as a trip, it’s just three cards of the same value plus two kicker cards.
Ex: 4h 4s 4c 10d 7s
4.7539%
A pair is just two cards of the same value. This hand has two of them plus a fifth kicker card.
Ex: 10d 10h 6d 6c 2s
42.2569%
In contrast, this hand only has one pair plus three kicker cards.
Ex: Kd Kh 6s 3c 2s
50.1177%
It’s called a hand but it’s practically just a collection of random cards. This is what you get by default when you are unable to build anything stronger.
In most cases, it would be best to just fold when you get this hand – unless you’re sure that you can bluff your way to victory.
Ex: Jd 7c 6s 4h 2h
Don’t worry if the whole subject seems overwhelming. The more games you play, the more you’ll be able to master these things.
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