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This is part 1 of a 4 part beginners series on how to effectively play Texas Hold ‘Em Poker. Part 1 of this series will focus on selecting your starting hands.

Whether you’ve been playing texas hold ’em poker for a few months or several years you will surely know by now that the most important decision you can make is which two cards you will play before the flop. Unfortunately you can’t count on flipping over two aces every time as you will be dealt the pocket rockets on average once every 220 hand or 0.45% of the time. Since those odds don’t seem very favorable you will need to loosen you starting hand requirements. Determining which two cards to play preflop is not an easy task and there are several factors to consider most importantly your position at the table but we’ll get into that later on in the tutorial. For now let’s review the top 10 texas hold ’em poker starting hands.

The hands are ranked according to the odds of winning preflop against one opponent.

AA

Odds of being dealt 0.45%

Odds of winning heads up 85.3%

Odds of winning against 9 players 31.1%

KK

Odds of being dealt 0.45%

Odds of winning heads up 82.4%

Odds of winning against 9 players 26.1%

QQ

Odds of being dealt 0.45%

Odds of winning heads up 79.9%

Odds of winning against 9 players 22.2%

JJ

Odds of being dealt 0.45%

Odds of winning heads up 77.5%

Odds of winning against 9 players 19.3%

TT

Odds of being dealt 0.45%

Odds of winning heads up 75.1%

Odds of winning against 9 players 17.2%

99

Odds of being dealt 0.45%

Odds of winning heads up 72.1%

Odds of winning against 9 players 15.6%

88

Odds of being dealt 0.45%

Odds of winning heads up 69.1%

Odds of winning against 9 players 14.4%

AK Suited

Odds of being dealt 0.3%

Odds of winning heads up 67.0%

Odds of winning against 9 players 20.7%

77

Odds of being dealt 0.45%

Odds of winning heads up 66.2%

Odds of winning against 9 players 13.7%

AQ Suited

Odds of being dealt 0.3%

Odds of winning heads up 66.1%

Odds of winning against 9 players 19.3%

While it’s not important to memorize every single percentage, what is important is to realize that even pocket aces, the strongest starting hand in texas hold ’em poker, are only a 31.1% favorite to win in a 10 way pot. As a beginner player the concept of slow playing a big pair is too advanced and requires a deeper understanding of possible outs and probabilities therefore until you become more comfortable with these concepts you should focus on always raising when you are dealt one of these top 10 hands so as to preferably go heads up to the flop.

Let’s use an example to illustrate the importance of raising strong starting hands pre-flop. For the time being we will omit the positional advantage and just focus on starting hands.

Your hand: A♠K♠

At this point there are 9 players to act after you. If you call and everyone else calls your odds of winning at this point are 20.7%. The flop could come all ♠ giving you the best possible hand but it could just as well come all ♣ with no A or K thus putting you in a tough spot against 9 players as the odds of another player having x♣x♣ are approximately 25%.

You raise three times the big blind everyone folds around to the BB who calls.

Now your odds of winning before seeing the flop are 67.0%, you’ve just tripled your odds of winning a substantial pot.

We’ll go into post flop play in the next few lessons, but here’s a preview.

The flop comes

A♣ 3♥ 7♦

A quick analysis of the board shows that you are now an 85% favorite to win the hand with your pair of aces and top kicker assuming your opponent did not flop a set or two pairs. You bet half the pot and unless your opponent is holding two pairs or made a set, he will fold.

That concludes the first lesson on the top 10 starting hands in texas hold ’em poker. Remember the key is to raise before the flop to knock off as many players as possible in order to improve your odds of winning.

The second part of this series will go into more detail about how to select your starting hands based on the probabilities of connecting on the flop.

Part 2 

Tags: guide, odds, starting hands, Texas holdem
Posted in Guides