Possible Starting Hands In Texas Holdem

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.

• Possible Starting Hands In Texas Holdemhold Em
• Possible Starting Hands In Texas Holdemas Hold Em
• Possible Starting Hands In Texas Holdemem
• Strongest Starting Hands In Texas Holdem
• Possible Starting Hands In Texas Holdem Tournaments

• There are 169 different two card starting hand combinations in hold’em poker. This number assumes, for the sake of argument, that is the same as, or any other suited combination. If you are not dealt a pair, then your starting hand will either be suited or unsuited, and either connected or unconnected (gapped).
• At the bottom of this page is a comprehensive listing of Texas Hold'em starting hands based on their EV (expected value). Expected value is the average number of big blinds this hand will make or lose. For example: AA from the Small Blind in a $3/$6 game will make, on average, 2.71 times the big blind, or $16.20 per hand (2.71. $6).

You don’t have to play Texas holdem for long before you start doing a little reading about the game.

One of the first things you’ll learn is that you need to have starting hand requirements.

You can find various charts and tables for this sort of thing, but you’ll also learn quickly that you have 169 possible starting hands.

The best of these is pocket aces, and the worst is 27 offsuit.

But how do you rank the starting hands in-between?

You’ll find plenty of quality and insightful advice regarding Texas Holdem when searching online, but here’s some information presented in a way that it should be easy to absorb and remember from the professionals.

How to Play Pocket Pairs Preflop

One of the first books I read about Texas holdem was co-written by Phil Hellmuth, and it was titled Play Poker Like the Pros.

He has a top 10 starting hands list that consists of any pair of 7s or higher, along with ace-king and ace-queen.

He suggests that if you’re new to the game, you play super-tight and limit yourself to these hands.

So, obviously, pocket pairs are important pre-flop in Texas holdem.

But how do you play them?

Possible Starting Hands In Texas Holdemhold Em

You start by subcategorizing these hands:

• Huge pairs – aces or kings
• Big pairs – any pair of 10s, jacks, or queens
• Medium pairs – any pair of 7s, 8s, or 9s
• Little pairs – all the rest – any pair of 6 or lower

How to Play Huge Pairs Preflop

It’s hard to lose money when you have a pair of kings or a pair of aces pre-flop in Texas holdem. These hands can often win unimproved. It doesn’t matter what kind of game you’re in – passive or aggressive, loose or tight, huge pairs practically play themselves.

These hands are easy to play pre-flop, especially when playing Texas Holdem online.

Bet with them, raise with them and re-raise with them.

Here are the huge pairs in list format:

• AA
• KK

How to Play Big Pairs Preflop

Big pairs are still great hands, but not as great as aces or kings, obviously.

But like the huge pairs, you can often win just on the strength of this pair alone. And a big pair plays well in any kind of game, too.

The only time you wouldn’t re-raise with a big pair like this is if you’re acting after multiple raisers and re-raisers. In that case, you should consider the possibility that your opponent is ahead.

The correct play here gets trickier. It might make sense to call a raise and a re-raise here if you know the other players’ tendencies and see what happens on the flop. If you’re against a tight player, it might make sense to just fold in the race of multiple raises.

Here are the big pairs in list format:

• QQ
• JJ
• TT

How to Play Medium Pairs Preflop

If you can reduce your competition to just a couple of people, these pairs play well – but mostly if those players are loose and probably have weaker hands than you do.

If you can get into a pot with 5+ other players, you have an opportunity to win big on the occasions when you flop a set. With 5 players in the pot with you, someone almost always has a pair, and they’ll usually play it aggressively.

Limping from early position is appropriate, and raising from late position is also appropriate, but only if you’re trying to thin the competition. If multiple players have already limped, you should limp to so that you can get more people in the pot.

This hand is strong enough that you can afford to call a single raiser and try to hit a set on the flop, but you need to be ready to fold if you don’t – especially against tough opponents.

Here are the medium pairs in list format:

• 99
• 88
• 77

Possible Starting Hands In Texas Holdemas Hold Em

How to Play Small Pairs Preflop

It’s hard to win a hand with a small pair unless it improves on the flop, turn, or river. The profits from this category of hand come from the occasional sets and full houses.

Your goal should be to get into the hand as cheaply as possible and with as many opponents as possible.

If the game is loose enough, you’d be justified calling a raise pre-flop, although multiple raisers and re-raisers are trouble. Position matters a lot when playing in person or at online casinos.

Some players are going to put a lot of money into the pot regardless of what happens on the later rounds, so even if you can’t get into the pot with 5+ players, these are playable hands.

Just don’t overplay small pairs. And be ready to let go of them when you miss the flop.

Here’s a list of the small pairs:

• 66
• 55
• 44
• 33
• 22

How to Play Suited Cards Preflop

Suited cards are cards of the same suit. They can be great hands, mediocre hands, or lousy hands, depending on the ranks of the suited cards.

How to Play Suited Broadway Cards

The strongest suited cards are the broadway cards. These include the ace with a king, queen, jack, or ten. This category also includes king-queen suited and king-jack suited.

You can win multiple ways with this category of starting hands. The most common way you’ll win with these cards is when you hit a big pair with a strong kicker. You can also often hit a flush with a big card.

Instead of automatically raising with these cards as you would with the big pairs, though, you should usually only raise if you’re the first one in the pot. If you have raisers in front of you, let your opponent’s tendencies guide your decision. Against a loose player, call. Against a tight player, at least consider folding.

Even though these are strong hands, they’re still drawing hands. You won’t often win unless your hand improves on the flop, turn, or river.

Here’s a list of the top suited broadway cards:

• AKs
• AQs
• AJs
• A10s
• KQs
• KJs

But not all suited broadway cards are premium starting hands like the big ones listed above.

Queen-jack suited, king-ten suited, queen-ten suited, and jack-ten suited are also broadway cards, but they’re considerably weaker. They’re harder to win with because it’s easier for your opponent to have a stronger hand.

Your goal is to win against weak opponents or to hit a really big hand and win a large pot with a lot of opponents. You’ll win those pots when you hit your occasional straights and flushes.

These are good hands to limp in with, and you can raise with them in late position if everyone in front of you limped.

These are good hands to limp in with when playing at real money online casinos, and you can raise with them in late position if everyone in front of you limped.

If someone raises, though, make sure you can get multiple players into the pot with you before calling. It won’t usually be profitable to get heads-up with a small suited broadway hand.

Here’s a list of the smaller suited broadway starting hands:

• QJs
• K10s
• Q10s
• J10s

Big-Little Suited

Big-little suited hands are any suited ace with a 9 or lower or any suited king with a 9 or lower.

The bigger the kicker is, the better. The aces are far stronger than the kings, too.

But even if you pair the king, you have a lot to fear when an ace shows up on one of the later rounds.

Your goal with a big-little suited hand, though, is to get into a pot with a lot of other players cheap and hit a flush.

Here’s a list of big-little suited hands:

• A9s
• A8s
• A7s
• A6s
• A5s
• A4s
• A3s
• A2s
• K9s
• K8s
• K7s
• K6s
• K5s
• K4s
• K3s
• K2s

Suited Connectors

These are hands starting with 10-9 suited and going down from there, with or without gaps.

Suited connectors without gaps, for example, are 10-9 suited, 9-8 suited, 8-7 suited, 6-5 suited, and 5-4 suited.

Here’s a list of playable suited connectors without gaps:

• 10-9s
• 98s
• 87s
• 76s
• 54s

(You’ll notice that 32s isn’t playable.)

Suited connectors with one gap, on the other hand, are jack-9 suited, 10-8 suited, 9-7 suited, and so on, down to 6-4 suited.

Here’s a list of playable suited connectors with one gap:

• J9s
• 10-8s
• 97s
• 86s
• 75s
• 64s

(Notice that 53s isn’t playable.)

You can also have suited connectors with 2 or 3 gaps like queen-9 suited or 9-6 suited (or in between), or queen-8 suited, and jack-7 suited.

The list of playable suited connectors with 2 gaps is shorter:

• Q9s
• J8s
• 10-7s
• 96s

And the list of playable suited connectors with 3 gaps is even shorter still:

• Q8s
• J7s

Regardless of which suited connector you’re looking at, it’s a hand that needs to hit hard on the flop to bet worth continuing with. In other words, you want to get in before the flop for a minimal investment and with multiple opponents.

Otherwise, suited connectors aren’t really worth playing pre-flop.

Also, you’ll notice that this category doesn’t include suited broadway cards, as they’re played a little differently.

Unsuited Cards Before the Flop

The only time you’ll play unsuited cards pre-flop is if they’re both broadway cards.

Possible Starting Hands In Texas Holdemem

These hands play the same as the other speculative hands. Get in cheap with a lot of other players so you can win a big pot. Be ready to fold them.

Here’s a list of playable unsuited cards:

• AK
• AQ
• AJ
• A-10
• KQ
• KJ
• K-10
• QJ
• Q-10
• J-10

Unplayable Starting Hands

If you’re running a naked bluff – which I don’t recommend to beginners, anyway – any 2 cards might do. If you notice how many starting hands are included in the lists above, you’ll see that you have 66 playable hands in these admittedly somewhat arbitrary categories.

You have 169 possible starting hands in Texas holdem, which means that I’m recommending you only play the top 39% of the possible starting hands.

But this doesn’t mean you should always play any of these hands.

When you account for the folding you’ll do when you have less than a premium holding, you’ll more likely play between 15% and 25% of your starting hands, depending on table conditions.

Where to Get More Guidance About Starting Hand Categories

I leaned heavily on Ed Miller’s book, Small Stakes Holdem when writing this post.

But you’ll also find Phil Hellmuth’s book, Play Poker Like the Pros helpful – especially when it comes to starting hands for no limit players.

Doyle Brunson’s Super/System also has excellent insights into how to play various starting hands in no limit holdem.

Holdem Poker for Advanced Players, by Mason Malmuth and David Sklansky, has a grouping of starting hands by category that might also prove useful.

Finally, check out this blog on preflop Texas Holdem Poker strategy.

Conclusion

The easiest way to get started playing well in Texas holdem is to put your starting hands into categories. Most new players play too many hands pre-flop, and they don’t fold often enough when their hands miss the flop.

You’ll know better than to make those mistakes now.

But starting hands are just the start of Texas holdem wisdom.

There are over one hundred possible starting hands in Texas Holdem ranging from the all powerful pocket aces to the fairly worthless 2/3 offsuit. Every one of these opening hands carries with it a unique set of strategies, strengths, weaknesses and other facets for when you decide to play those cards.

While it would be impossible to go over every possible opening hand to decide how best to play those cards, we can narrow the list down to a few tricky hands and cover how to play them. These cards were picked by me personally as opening hands I totally misplayed or succeeded at playing well. Ultimately, I learned a lot from them and I think you can learn from them, too.

Just be careful. It’s impossible to discuss every situation that will arise over the course of a full game of poker. In the end, you still need to use your best judgment and remember that bad beats will happen. Still, I think I can show you how to handle these opening hands better more often than not.

1- Pocket Kings

According to some charts I’ve seen, if you’re dealt pocket kings, you actually have an 83% percent chance to win the hand. Personally, I would like to find whoever put that that chart together and have some very strong words about what, exactly, I feel about being dealt pocket kings. Maybe I’m just the 17%, but I’ve never actually won when I’m dealt them.

Strongest Starting Hands In Texas Holdem

Though, if I am being honest, a lot of the reason I lose with pocket kings is my own fault. It just feels like such a strong hand. Having a pair of anything in the hole is clearly better than having nothing in the hole when you start. (Even pocket 2s have a better than 50% chance of winning the day.) Still, pocket kings is far from unbeatable especially when your opponents are likely to play any hand with a pocket ace.

Even though I personally haven’t had luck with pocket kings, the strategy for playing them is fairly straight forward. If you don’t have position, you have enough firepower that you can play a strong opening bet. You don’t want to bet the farm, but you can definitely raise pre-flop with what you have if you’re aggressive, but definitely stay in the hand.

If you have position, pay attention to your opponents.

As far as the rest of the hand goes, you can continue to be aggressive, but be on the lookout for an ace. If a single ace hits the board, more than likely someone else is going to use that to make a pair of aces. Sadly, that is the voice of experience talking. If no ace hits the board, then you may be able to ride pocket kings to victory.

2- Ace/King Suited

Ace/king is another of those poker hands that gets a bad rap around the community. I think the reason for this is largely psychological because an ace and a king feel pretty good (they are the highest and second highest card in the game after all.) Unfortunately, they’re also not worth much because together they don’t even form a pair. So, their strength is largely illusory without some help.

With that said, there’s almost no reason that you don’t stay in with ace/king. I would have to be at a final table with everyone else going all in before I’d even think about folding ace/king and then I’d still probably push my stack and see what happened.

That’s really the key with ace/king: you’re not going to win pre-flop. You need help from the board to win, but you’re sitting in a really good position to let the board help you go on to poker glory. Therefore, as long as your bankroll management limit can support it, call any reasonable amount to stay and see what the flop gives you for it is on the flop that you will make your money.

Once the flop is down, that’s when you have a decision to make.

If any of that happens, stay in the game and bet according to the strength of your hand. If the other players are betting aggressive, you can back off, but you have a good chance of winning. On the other hand, if you flop nothing in your suit and nothing higher than a 9, you might want to get out of the hand since there’s a good chance someone else is working on a better hand than you.

Continue that logic through the next two cards. If you chances to win are high or if you have something, keep betting. If the cards aren’t falling your way, then don’t risk your money. Live to fight another day.

3- Ace/King Off Suit

Unsurprisingly enough, the strategy for ace/king off suit is largely the same as it is for ace/king suited, however the number of good post-flop hands fall off pretty dramatically since you will need at least four cards on the board to make a flush and, quite frankly, if you’re making a flush that way, so is everyone else.

Because of this, when I have ace/king off suit, I am mainly looking for flops that give me that chance at a straight. I certainly don’t mind pairs, but the table is likely to hold on to their hands if they have either a king or an ace. Therefore, if I have a pair, they probably have a pair and I end up splitting the pot. A straight is a much better way to ensure victory even though they are more rare.

4- Queen/Seven

Queen/seven isn’t the greatest starting hand, but having a face card to your name isn’t a bad thing, right? Actually, this is a deceptively poor hand and when you see this combination show up, the best thing you can do is fold.

I say “deceptively” because if this were a game of blackjack, a combined score of 17 is a pretty good hand (in fact, Queen/seven is the highest-scored blackjack hand that you want to fold.)

According to computer simulations, queen/seven will only win about fifty percent of the time, which makes it unreliable.

Ultimately, that unreliability is this hand’s undoing. Even if you have position and everyone else is tepid, resist temptation and throw in your cards. The only reason to stay in is if you were the big blind and no one else bet. Then you could at least see if there’s something pre-flop.

Possible Starting Hands In Texas Holdem Tournaments

5- Five/Four Suited

This is an autofold, right? Strangely enough, if you have position, five/four suited is the worst hand you could possibly consider keeping at least until you see the flop.

Why would you keep this hand? It offers two interesting ways to win. First, it sits in the middle of a straight (though clearly five/six suited would be better because then your hold cards could begin or end a straight) and it can be a nice seed for building out a flush. There’s also a very small chance a pair of fives win if most of the other players miss their draws.

I’m definitely not saying that you should play this hand every time. If you don’t have the position or if the table is betting fiercely, you don’t have a lot of strength in your hand and you probably won’t win any money. On the other hand, if the action is lukewarm, then it might make sense to stay in the hand and see what the flop gives you.

If the flop gives you four of the five cards you need for a straight, at that point, you can start to bet accordingly because chances are no one else has 4/5 in the hole and is not going for the same straight you are. Of course, if the flop doesn’t cooperate, fold and live to bet another day.

Conclusion

Poker can be cruel sometimes and the hands you think are the best sometimes just are not. That’s okay. That’s why you have a bankroll and that’s why you fold early so you can bet more later.

Still, hopefully when you are dealt any of the five hands above, you now have a better idea of whether you should stay in the game or runaway to play again later. Good luck and happy pokering.