Premium starting hands in Texas Hold’em

You’ve learned about the poker hand hierarchy and you’ve got the basic rules of the game down pat! The next thing you need to build more confidence at the table is the knowledge of which hands you should start out playing.

Premium Starting Hands

It’s your turn to bet and now you’re wondering if your hand is strong enough to justify a call or raise, or maybe you should fold? Below are the generally accepted, top ten starting hole card hands in Texas Hold’em poker. They are considered premium hole cards and are potential hand-winning cards. With these cards, you will certainly want to play the hand, but be sure to consider your position on the table.

Texas Holdem Best Hands Preflop Play

In a no-limit hold'em cash game, you reach the flop in a heads-up pot. Sadly for you, your opponent has the best hand at the moment. Preflop + Poker GTO Nash Charts (Free / $74.99). On this site you can find all possible combinations of preflop hands that can occur in Texas Hold'em Poker. As a bonus you will also learn the nicknames of the different hands. The hands are ranked from #1 to #169, where #1 is the best. This ranking is applicable when the poker table is full ring (9-10 people). Top 10 Best Starting Hands In Texas Hold'em Poker. (50:50) against any unpaired hand and a strong pre-flop favorite over any lower pocket pair. It is still a very strong hand, particularly if.

Pocket Aces (Bullets) – Considered the best starting hole cards in Hold’em, AA are playable from any position.

Pocket Kings (Cowboys) – Considered the second best starting hole cards, KK are playable from any position.

Pocket Queens (Ladies) – Great strength pre-flop but becomes difficult to play post-flop when over-cards hit.

AKs(uited) (Big Slick) – This is the fourth strongest starting hand, even against KK and is a significant favorite against the rest.

AQs(uited) (Little Slick) – This hand is strong but can easily be dominated in typical all-in pre-flop scenarios.

Pocket Jacks (Fishhooks) – Many players claim paired jacks are the most difficult top 10 starting hand to play. While being one of the top 10 best starting hand, JJ versus AA-QQ and AKo-AQs is vulnerable.

KQs(uited) (Royal Couple) –While this hand is best suited to make straights and flushes, it can put you in difficult positions when flopping top pair, as you quite possibly will not have the best kicker.

AJ (Ajax) – These hole cards can be difficult to play from early position because you will never get folds from better aces, and you won’t get the value of a top pair. However, it does have value in its ability to make the nut straight or flush.

AKo(ff-suit) (Big Ugly) – The strongest unsuited, non-pair. This hand is easy to overplay and over value in tournaments and in ring games.

TT (TNT) – Extremely strong vs two random cards, yet as with JJ, it can be difficult to play.

Now that you’re familiar with the basic rules and best hands of poker, betting, position and premium starting hands, you’re ready to take a seat and begin your poker adventure!

I’ve read that you can become a breakeven Texas Hold’em player just by mastering preflop strategy. While your results depend on your skill and your luck, I know for a fact that you can’t be profitable in Texas Hold’em unless your play during all the streets of the game are top notch.

In this post, I offer some insights and tips into preflop Texas Hold’em play.

Some of this advice applies to both limit and no limit Hold’em, while some of it only applies to one or the other. I’ll include that information with each tip. Keep reading below to learn some useful tips to improve your strategy while playing Texas Hold’em online and offline.

1 – Raise or Fold

Texas Holdem Best Hands Preflop Poker

One thing I learned early in my career as a Texas Hold’em player is that you should raise or fold any time you’re the first player in the pot.

If you have a lousy hand, fold it.

If you don’t feel good betting or raising with the hand, it’s not worth calling with.

Players who try to get lucky on the flop lose money fast, and they lose money consistently. If you have lousy cards preflop, even if you hit a flop, it might be inferior to someone else’s hand which hit the flop.

You have 56 suited, and the flop comes A-10-5. You hit the flop, and you have a pair, but at least one of your opponents probably has an ace or a 10 in the hole. If they don’t, they probably have a lower pocket pair, but it’s probably still better than your pair of fives.

And when you do have a good hand, by betting and raising with it, you simultaneously put pressure on your opponents to fold and build the size of the pot with a hand that has a good probability of winning that pot.

If you have strong enough hole cards, you can have the best hand on the flop even if you miss it completely.

2 – You Need an Even Bigger Hand If Someone Has Already Called

One of the reasons you raise with a big hand when you’re the first person in the pot is that you get a chance to pick up the blinds immediately.

If someone has already called in front of you, then you have to convince one more person to fold to pick up those blinds.

When multiple people have called in front of you, you have even more people to convince to fold. This means, if you’re going to raise here, you need a stronger hand.

Best Poker Hands Texas Holdem Preflop

It also helps to know what kind of tendencies your opponents have when playing at live dealer casinos.

Pay attention to the kinds of cards your opponents play.

If you pay close enough attention, you’ll have a good idea of what your opponents’ starting hand requirements are, and you’ll be able to make decisions accordingly.

3 – You Need an Even Bigger Hand Still If Someone Has Raised

If it seems like I’m hammering the idea that you should raise or fold by suggesting that you need strong hands preflop, then you’re paying attention.

Players don’t get into trouble with hands that they fold preflop. They also don’t get into trouble with hands they feel are good enough to re-raise with preflop.

They only get into trouble with hands they call raises with preflop because they have to figure out where they are on the flop.

After all, most of the time, you’ll miss the flop.

Your opponent will miss the flop most of the time, too, but give him some credit for having a hand preflop if he raised with it.

This means sticking with premium hands like aces and kings if there’s been a raise in front of you.

4 – Pay Attention to Your Position

You need stronger cards to play from early position than you need to play from later position.

The reason for this is simple.

The earlier you act, the less information you have about your opponents.

Let’s say you get a pair of sevens from early position, and you limp in with it which means, of course, that you weren’t paying attention to my first three preflop Hold’em tips, by the way.

You get a raise from the player behind you, and the player behind him reraises, too. You don’t have much choice at this point but to fold your pocket sevens, but you’ve lost a bet by doing so.

After all, with a raise and a re-raise behind you, someone probably has a pair bigger than yours in the hole. And if not, they’re at the least playing big cards like AK, AQ, or KQ.

Your only hope is that you hit a seven on the flop, but the odds of that are terrible because there are only 2 of those cards left in the deck.

Also, you’re going to be in early position on the flop, too, so you won’t have any hints as to what your opponents might have after the flop, either.

Suppose the flop comes A-K-6. You’re first to act. You can bet here, but if either of your opponents raise, your only smart move (again) is to fold. After all, they got into this hand with a raise and a re-raise preflop, so they showed strength.

They’re likely to have hit an ace or a king, and they’re also likely to have a big pair in the hole.

If you stick with prem