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For those of you who have read my featured article "Why Starting Hands Are So Important", here is my list of recommended starting hands or the hole cards that I suggest any amateur poker player sticks to whilst learning the game.
You may have watched episodes of professional poker games on the telly and seen hero's such as Gus Hansen, Phil Ivey, Ram Vaswani etc. playing and winning with starting hands like 9,7 off, 3,5 suit, 8,6s. Those players play those hands not because they are lucky, but because they know exactly when and how to play to advanced poker strategy, taking into account mutual outs, pot odds, implied odds, impossible "put-ons" and advanced game theory.
At no point should you try to copy professional plays on an amateur stage. It doesn't work. Radical precocious play will only damage your stack and reduce your chances of winning.
Trying to "get funky" and playing the rags (A,2-10) and connectors (3,4/10,9/6,7 etc) may also land you in trouble when you're still learning the game. I will teach you how and when to use these and other types of hands in later articles.
Going into a flop with big aces, pairs and high connectors is the way forward and by far the best advice for any amateur player who is looking to make a profit in low-stakes poker. The progression of your game will build from this rock solid basic strategy even if you develop a loose style later.
Recommended Starting Hands for No-limit Hold'em.
AA
KK
QQ
AKs
JJ
AKo
1010
AQs
99
AQo
AJs
KQs
KQo
88
77
66
55
----
44
33 Don't get too committed with the lower pairs. I will explain a future article.
22
The above list is my best 20 hands from the 169 possible poker starting hands. And therefore constitutes over 14% of statistically better starting hands.
On a 10 handed poker table you should look to play around 1 hand in every 10 on average. Playing only the top 16 starting hands and occasionally calling small with 44 33 and 22.
I also break the top 20 starting hands down into groups. This gives you guidelines of how to bet/call/fold with the different hands.
Groups of hands
Group 1
AA
KK
QQ
AKs
UN-RAISED POT = You should raise
RAISED POT = You should re-raise
ALL IN = Call/Re-raise
Group 2
JJ
AKo
1010
AQs
UN-RAISED POT = Raise
RAISED POT = Re-raise
ALL IN = Call most of the time occasionally fold 1010 and JJ
Group 3
99
AQo
AJs
UN-RAISED POT = Raise
RAISED POT = Call
ALL IN = Fold most of the time
Group 4
KQs
KQo
88
77
UN-RAISED POT = Call/sometimes bet
RAISED POT = Mostly Call small raises/Fold to large raises
ALL IN = Fold
Group 5
66
55
----
44
33
22
UN-RAISED POT = Call blinds
RAISED POT = With 66 55 call small raises as long as there are 2 or more players already in the hand. Fold to big raises
With 44/33/22 fold most of the time unless there are 4 or more players in the hand
ALL IN = FOLD
If you follow this pattern of pre-flop plays, You should develop a "tight" style and I'll talk about that soon in a section of the next article.
Next Articles:-
Beginners poker strategy
Position
Tight, loose, passive and aggressive.
Betting
My take on live hold'em by bidthebrat
See you then
Thanks for reading
Brat
You may have watched episodes of professional poker games on the telly and seen hero's such as Gus Hansen, Phil Ivey, Ram Vaswani etc. playing and winning with starting hands like 9,7 off, 3,5 suit, 8,6s. Those players play those hands not because they are lucky, but because they know exactly when and how to play to advanced poker strategy, taking into account mutual outs, pot odds, implied odds, impossible "put-ons" and advanced game theory.
At no point should you try to copy professional plays on an amateur stage. It doesn't work. Radical precocious play will only damage your stack and reduce your chances of winning.
Trying to "get funky" and playing the rags (A,2-10) and connectors (3,4/10,9/6,7 etc) may also land you in trouble when you're still learning the game. I will teach you how and when to use these and other types of hands in later articles.
Going into a flop with big aces, pairs and high connectors is the way forward and by far the best advice for any amateur player who is looking to make a profit in low-stakes poker. The progression of your game will build from this rock solid basic strategy even if you develop a loose style later.
Recommended Starting Hands for No-limit Hold'em.
AA
KK
AKs
JJ
AKo
1010
AQs
99
AQo
AJs
KQs
KQo
88
77
66
55
----
44
33 Don't get too committed with the lower pairs. I will explain a future article.
22
The above list is my best 20 hands from the 169 possible poker starting hands. And therefore constitutes over 14% of statistically better starting hands.
On a 10 handed poker table you should look to play around 1 hand in every 10 on average. Playing only the top 16 starting hands and occasionally calling small with 44 33 and 22.
I also break the top 20 starting hands down into groups. This gives you guidelines of how to bet/call/fold with the different hands.
Groups of hands
Group 1
AA
KK
AKs
UN-RAISED POT = You should raise
RAISED POT = You should re-raise
ALL IN = Call/Re-raise
Group 2
JJ
AKo
1010
AQs
UN-RAISED POT = Raise
RAISED POT = Re-raise
ALL IN = Call most of the time occasionally fold 1010 and JJ
Group 3
99
AQo
AJs
UN-RAISED POT = Raise
RAISED POT = Call
ALL IN = Fold most of the time
Group 4
KQs
KQo
88
77
UN-RAISED POT = Call/sometimes bet
RAISED POT = Mostly Call small raises/Fold to large raises
ALL IN = Fold
Group 5
66
55
----
44
33
22
UN-RAISED POT = Call blinds
RAISED POT = With 66 55 call small raises as long as there are 2 or more players already in the hand. Fold to big raises
With 44/33/22 fold most of the time unless there are 4 or more players in the hand
ALL IN = FOLD
If you follow this pattern of pre-flop plays, You should develop a "tight" style and I'll talk about that soon in a section of the next article.
Next Articles:-
Beginners poker strategy
Position
Tight, loose, passive and aggressive.
Betting
My take on live hold'em by bidthebrat
See you then
Thanks for reading
Brat
