Poker Lesson 2: Starting Hand Selection

As we all know, or have noticed after opening a Texas Holdem table, we get dealt two hole cards. After the preflop betting, three flop cards are shown, and then three betting rounds – flop, turn and river – follow. At the end of a poker hand, there are five cards face up on the table, and only two in each remaining player’s hand.

We hold only two of seven cards in play. This might let us think that the two cards in our hand are unimportant, after all, if there are seven cards that play in total, why should our starting hand matter? Any hand can win, right?

Of course. Any starting hand can win. We can take the worst starting hand of them all (72 off-suit) and put it up against the best (a pair of Aces) – and 72o still will be the best hand at the river roughly a fifth of the time. So, why shouldn’t we play any and all starting hands?

After all, it is more fun to play, to raise and call and see flops, than to just fold. Right?

Sure. It might be more fun, but if we want to win, the absolute foundation is having solid starting hand selection. Any hand can win, but most hands will lose most of the time, costing us a lot of money long-term – and nobody wants that!

So, what is this solid starting hand selection? What hands are playable, and what hands are not?

As a beginner, we would recommend you play the following types of starting hands:

1) High pocket pairs; A-A, K-K, Q-Q, J-J. The high pocket pairs can often win without improvement, making them premium hands and superior to all other starting hands. It does not take much logic to realize that a pair of Aces is the best starting hand of them all, but all big pocket pairs are playable, and should be played aggressively preflop.

2) Big cards. Meaning hands like AQ or AK. If suited, they are almost premium hands. If off-suited, they are still good to great starting hands. With a hand like AK, we often will hit at least top pair with top kicker on the flop, which will be a winning hand a large portion of the time. Given the right circumstances, we can also play a hand like AJ. However, hands like KJ might look very nice, but they are hands that often make second-best hands, and hands that a beginner should avoid.

3) Medium pocket pairs. Hands like 7-7, 8-8, 9-9, 10-10. Good starting hands, however, we play them mostly to make three of a kind, since pairs like these rarely are the best hands at the river. However, when we hit three of a kind, we often make a lot of money against someone with two pair or just a pair.

4) Suited connectors. Two suited and connected cards, like JT, 98, of the same suit. Be aware that low suited connectors drop in value, a hand like 32 is, even if it is suited, a hand that often should be folded when facing a raise. These are hands that we play mainly to make two pair or better, or to hit a good draw on the flop.

5) Low pocket pairs, ranging from 22-66. These are starting hands that we can play if the pot isn’t raised, or if we are first in, but that we should be very careful with. Unless the flop gives us three of a kind, our standard play is to fold on the flop.

In the next lesson, I will go into more detail regarding preflop play; when, why and how should these starting hands be played? In the mean time, follow this advice and fold the other hands, and you should be well on the path of becoming a successful poker player!