Best Texas Holdem Starting Hands

5 Best Texas Hold’em Starting Hands. Texas Hold’em poker has 169 different two-card opening hand combinations. The notion is that if your starting hand is not a pair, then you will be dealt either connected or unconnected cards or a hand that’s either suited or offsuit. Suited hands have cards of the same suit e.g. Also known as “Pocket Rockets”, “Bullets” or sometimes “American Airlines”) is the best starting hand for Texas Holdem. Pocket aces are a strong pre-flop favourite over any other two cards, and they are 4:1 favourite over almost any hand in poker. You will be dealt pocket aces once every 221 hands. Known affectionately as American Airlines, pocket rockets, or simply the bullets, a wired pair of aces is the top starting hand in all of Texas holdem. As you can see, bringing aces to battle against nine random hands gives you nearly a one third chance of winding up the winner.

1. Best Odds Starting Hands Texas Holdem
2. Top Texas Holdem Starting Hands

In the poker game of Texas hold 'em, a starting hand consists of two hole cards, which belong solely to the player and remain hidden from the other players. Five community cards are also dealt into play. Betting begins before any of the community cards are exposed, and continues throughout the hand. The player's 'playing hand', which will be compared against that of each competing player, is the best 5-card poker hand available from his two hole cards and the five community cards. Unless otherwise specified, here the term hand applies to the player's two hole cards, or starting hand.

Essentials[edit]

There are 1326 distinct possible combinations of two hole cards from a standard 52-card deck in hold 'em, but since suits have no relative value in this poker variant, many of these hands are identical in value before the flop. For example, A♥J♥ and A♠J♠ are identical in value, because each is a hand consisting of an ace and a jack of the same suit.

Therefore, there are 169 non-equivalent starting hands in hold 'em, which is the sum total of : 13 pocket pairs, 13 × 12 / 2 = 78 suited hands and 78 unsuited hands (13 + 78 + 78 = 169).

These 169 hands are not equally likely. Hold 'em hands are sometimes classified as having one of three 'shapes':

• Pairs, (or 'pocket pairs'), which consist of two cards of the same rank (e.g. 9♠9♣). One hand in 17 will be a pair, each occurring with individual probability 1/221 (P(pair) = 3/51 = 1/17).

Alternative means of making this calculation

First Step

As confirmed above.

There are 1326 possible combination of opening hand.

Second Step

There are 6 different combos of each pair. 9h9c, 9h9s, 9h9d, 9c9s, 9c9d, 9d9s. Therefore, there are 78 possible combinations of pocket pairs (6 multiplied by 13 i.e. 22-AA)

To calculate the odds of being dealt a pair

78 (the number of any particular pair being dealt. As above) divided by 1326 (possible opening hands)

78/1326 = 0.058 or 5.8%

• Suited hands, which contain two cards of the same suit (e.g. A♣6♣). 23.5% of all starting hands are suited.

Probability of first card is 1.0 (any of the 52 cards)Probability of second hand suit matching the first:There are 13 cards per suit, and one is in your hand leaving 12 remaining of the 51 cards remaining in the deck. 12/51=.2353 or 23.5%

• Offsuit hands, which contain two cards of a different suit and rank (e.g. K♠J♥). 70.6% of all hands are offsuit hands

Offsuit pairs = 78Other offsuit hands = 936

It is typical to abbreviate suited hands in hold 'em by affixing an 's' to the hand, as well as to abbreviate non-suited hands with an 'o' (for offsuit). That is,

QQ represents any pair of queens,

KQ represents any king and queen,

AKo represents any ace and king of different suits, and

JTs represents any jack and ten of the same suit.

Limit hand rankings[edit]

Some notable theorists and players have created systems to rank the value of starting hands in limit Texas hold'em. These rankings do not apply to no limit play.

Sklansky hand groups[edit]

David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth^[1] assigned in 1999 each hand to a group, and proposed all hands in the group could normally be played similarly. Stronger starting hands are identified by a lower number. Hands without a number are the weakest starting hands. As a general rule, books on Texas hold'em present hand strengths starting with the assumption of a nine or ten person table. The table below illustrates the concept:

Chen formula[edit]

The 'Chen Formula' is a way to compute the 'power ratings' of starting hands that was originally developed by Bill Chen.^[2]

Highest Card

Based on the highest card, assign points as follows:

Ace = 10 points, K = 8 points, Q = 7 points, J = 6 points.

10 through 2, half of face value (10 = 5 points, 9 = 4.5 points, etc.)

Pairs

For pairs, multiply the points by 2 (AA=20, KK=16, etc.), with a minimum of 5 points for any pair. 55 is given an extra point (i.e., 6).

Suited

Add 2 points for suited cards.

Closeness

Subtract 1 point for 1 gappers (AQ, J9)

2 points for 2 gappers (J8, AJ).

4 points for 3 gappers (J7, 73).

5 points for larger gappers, including A2 A3 A4

Add an extra point if connected or 1-gap and your highest card is lower than Q (since you then can make all higher straights)

Phil Hellmuth's: 'Play Poker Like the Pros'[edit]

Phil Hellmuth's 'Play Poker Like the Pros' book published in 2003.

Statistics based on real online play[edit]

Statistics based on real play with their associated actual value in real bets.^[3]

Nicknames for starting hands[edit]

In poker communities, it is common for hole cards to be given nicknames. While most combinations have a nickname, stronger handed nicknames are generally more recognized, the most notable probably being the 'Big Slick' - Ace and King of the same suit, although an Ace-King of any suit combination is less occasionally referred to as an Anna Kournikova, derived from the initials AK and because it 'looks really good but rarely wins.'^[4][5] Hands can be named according to their shapes (e.g., paired aces look like 'rockets', paired jacks look like 'fish hooks'); a historic event (e.g., A's and 8's - dead man's hand, representing the hand held by Wild Bill Hickok when he was fatally shot in the back by Jack McCall in 1876); many other reasons like animal names, alliteration and rhyming are also used in nicknames.

Notes[edit]

1. ^David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth (1999). Hold 'em Poker for Advanced Players. Two Plus Two Publications. ISBN1-880685-22-1
2. ^Hold'em Excellence: From Beginner to Winner by Lou Krieger, Chapter 5, pages 39 - 43, Second Edition
3. ^http://www.pokerroom.com/poker/poker-school/ev-stats/total-stats-by-card/^{[dead link]}
4. ^Aspden, Peter (2007-05-19). 'FT Weekend Magazine - Non-fiction: Stakes and chips Las Vegas and the internet have helped poker become the biggest game in town'. Financial Times. Retrieved 2010-01-10.
5. ^Martain, Tim (2007-07-15). 'A little luck helps out'. Sunday Tasmanian. Retrieved 2010-01-10.

These days, even the most casual of poker fans who might happen upon a WSOP broadcast during the summer knows that the best Texas Hold’em starting hand is pocket aces. With an additional 1,300+ potential starting hand combinations, however, the overwhelming majority of the hands you’ll be dealt will consist of inferior holdings. As such, it is best to know how to deal with other card combinations that might come your way.

Sometimes the cards you’re dealt will look appealing and you’ll want to play them. Think a couple face cards, perhaps. Maybe you’ve gotten a couple of connected cards or maybe they’re suited (BUT THEY WERE SUITED!). In most situations, you’ll find that pairs are at least somewhat playable but for all those other hole card combos you’ll get, just like Kenny Rogers’ famous song “The Gambler” advises, “you’ve got to know when to hold’em, and know when to fold ’em.”

The more easily you’re able to identify weak starting hand combos, the quicker you’ll be able to make the right decisions at the table. When to bet, raise, call… or throw your hand away. The easiest decision you’ll usually have is throwing away your hand when it’s quite literally one of the worst combinations possible.

So, without further ado, we present to you the worst Texas Hold’em starting hands.

Deuce-Seven

Holding a 2 and a 7 (off suit) as your starting hand is without a doubt the worst hand you can get dealt. At best, you’d realistically be hoping to catch a 2 or 7 among the community cards on the flop for a low pair, which still makes for a relatively weak hand to carry on with. In pretty much every scenario then, whether you’ve found yourself a seat at the live casino card games or at your friend’s Friday home poker table, folding is the way to go when dealt the dreaded Deuce-Seven.

Deuce-Eight

The same issues that arise with the previous card combination are present at this one. In fact, it’s only marginally better. Should you decide to go against conventional wisdom and choose to proceed with such holdings, even if you improve to a pair on the flop, you’ll almost always find yourself behind and needing additional help to improve versus your opponents. Save yourself the hassle – and the money! – and get rid of the Deuce-Eight as quickly as you can… yes, even if they’re suited.

Three-Seven and Three-Eight

At this point, you probably know the drill. Starting hand combinations of 3-7 and 3-8 are, indeed, better than the aforementioned couple of combinations. The only advantage these combinations have over the ones we’ve listed already is that there’s an outside chance you might hit an inside straight with precisely the right flop. That, however, is most certainly NOT a reason to hold on to these starting hands. If you’ve got any interest in protecting your poker bankroll, toss the cards into the muck.

Deuce, Three, or Four and a Nine

You pick up your hole cards and start to peel… the first card you see is a 9. Not great, but not horrible either. Then you lift up the second card ever so slightly to reveal… a 2, or a 3, or a 4. The disappointment you feel should be palpable. Even if you’re no math expert and don’t realize that the chances of you winning with a starting hand of that nature are very slim, that sinking feeling you got when discovering that second card ought to lead you to do the right thing, namely chuck the hand.

Conclusion

Best Odds Starting Hands Texas Holdem

We’re pretty sure you’ve gotten the picture by now. It doesn’t take a card sharp to realize that while many of the hands you’ll be dealt aren’t too great to start out with, some of them are just pure rubbish and out to be discarded.

So there you have it, a rundown of some of the worst possible starting hand combinations you can possibly be dealt in Texas Hold’em. Hopefully, this is the only place you’ll ever have to see such trashy cards, and the dealers will always send premium hands your way.

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