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The Poker Professionals Association
Research Chapter
07
Hold'em Starting Hands
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Hold'em, more than any other type of Poker has less Luck (or as the Pros say Standard Deviation) and is consequently less likely to give you as many bad streaks as most other games. We are assuming here that you are playing correctly and have not developed any bad habits or have become careless with your strategy.
The most important decision you can make in Hold'em is whether to play the first two cards. In an effort to make your life a bit easier and hopefully more profitable, we offer a simplified starting hand system for your consideration.
Please note that there may be many games you will play with significant variation, based on the players in the game; however, most of your playing time could be improved by applying this starting strategy.
This basic starting hand strategy incorporates many of the features we discussed in previous chapters, yet is substantially easier to use. It also introduces some new strategies we have not seen discussed elsewhere by other poker analysts and writers.
Basic Texas Hold'em Strategy
Basic Hold'em Strategy consists of only playing the following starting hands in live Limit games. This is not designed for tournament or no limit games, where strategy would differ.
Starting hands:
AA
KK
JJ
10,10
99
88
77
66
55
44
33
22
AK
AQ
KQ
AJ's =SUITED ONLY
A,10's =SUITED ONLY
KJ's = SUITED ONLY
QJ's = SUITED ONLY
Please note that this strategy consists of playing the top 17 hand out of a possible 169 hands. This translates to playing roughly 1 out of 10 hands or the top 10% of all hands. (We are aware that we actually listed 20 hands above;however the 4 suited hands only combine to equal only one unsuited hand as you will only get these hands roughly one quarter as often as unsuited hands. So you are in actuality playing only the top 17 whole hands and 10% of a possible 169 hands.)
Provided you play these hands to the river and bet aggressively thus chasing out a few players, you should win a fair number of pots. Keep in mind you are only playing the top starting hands and are generally beginning as the favorite to win as many player depend strongly on luck at the flop just to continue.
We are sure you noticed that we left out a few starting hands that are the favorite of many players, lets take a look at a few:
A9 or A anything small: This is a hand you will see played by most pros often; however, this is also a hand that needs to hit an ace or two, a straight or a flush to win most of the time and then, even if you hit an ace, you could still be beat by a player with a larger kicker, remember your kicker is 9 or smaller. Recent computer analysis indicates that this is just not a profitable starting hand most times.
J,10 suited or unsuited: Even suited this is just not as good a starting hand as most players think. If you don't hit the straight or the flush, it probably will not win for you and can cost a lot of cash. Yes, we know you see this played all the time on World Poker Tour, but as we said, this strategy is not for tournaments or no limit, but for limit poker.
6,7's or any suited connector will not win most of the time when played to the river and is a big under dog to the top 17 hands. Will someone play it against you and win big? Sure, but consider this. How would you like to play a 6,7's as your only hand against players who only played the above 17 big starting hands and played them aggressively, seldom folding and frequently raising even when you bet strongly to drive them out.
Why do we suggest you include hands like 22 or 33 in your top 17 hands? There is the obvious answer. All pairs are superior to all non pair starting hands if played to the river. Sure, we know that it is a very small advantage to a hand like AK or AQ (about 52% for you and 48% for them.) True, that it is a small advantage, but that is not the primary reason we suggest playing small pairs. The much more important reason is that you are playing only the top 17 hands, which includes most of the high cards in the deck. It would not take long for most of the other players to notice your high starting hands and bet into you when a flop came with low cards. Thus, when you play pairs like 22, 33, 44, 55, and 66 and bet them aggresively, your opponents are put into the position of never knowing what you have as even on a low card flop, you will sometimes get trips. Another consideration, with low pairs, you sometimes get a full house that is virtually impossible to spot and at worst, you still have a pair, which is still better than any non pair.
Although you are playing less hands, once you do play we suggest you play them aggressively and usually to the river unless you have reason to believe you are beaten. It is most important that if you decide to follow this strategy, you must play every hand exactly the same, you must aggresively bet and raise each hand with confidence. Sure you will lose a lot of hands, but you will win a lot of hands too and, if played correctly, you should be able to make a good profit off most games, tight or loose.
Do we guarantee you will win with this strategy? NO, but then poker is not a game that gives guarantees. Just keep in mind that virtually all successful poker pros combine two traits, selecting good starting hand and playing aggressively when they choose to play a hand..
For your convenience in relationship to the current topic, and as a continous reference, the poker point system is attached below.
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POKER PRO POINT SYSTEM
With the point system we assign each card a specific relative value or points. As expected, the Ace receives the highest value; however, you will note that cards rankings from 8 down receive no value, unless paired, connected or suited.
For learning purposes, we are using Texas Hold'em Poker game primarily because it is currently the leading money game both for tournaments and live play and it the easiest to use to demonstrate the point system, as only two cards are dealt each player initially. Naturally we will cover the use of the Point System in other primary poker games in later research chapters.
Individual Card Point Values:
- A= 6 points
- K= 5 points
- Q= 4 points
- J = 3 points
- 10=2 points
- 9 = 1 points
- 8 = 0 points
- 7 = 0 points
- 6 = 0 points
- 5 = 0 points
- 4 = 0 points
- 3 = 0 points
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2 = 0 points
Pairs receive an extra value of 8 points.
Suited cards receive an extra value of 3 points.
Connected cards receive an extra value of 2 points.
Suited cards are written with a small "s" as: KJ's
Connected cards refers to directly adjacent cards such as: KQ or AK or KQ or QJ, not KJ or AQ.
Examples of values of first two cards dealt in Texas Hold'em:
- AA=20 points (6 points for each ace plus 8 points for a pair)
- KK=18 points (5 points for each king plus 8 points for a pair)
- QQ=16 points (4 points for each queen plus 8 points for a pair)
- AK's=16 points (6 points for the ace, 5 points for the king plus 3 points for being suited and 2 points for being connected)
- JJ=14 points (3 points for each jack plus 8 points for a pair)
- KQ's=14 points (5 points for the king, 4 points for the queen plus 3 points for being suited and 2 points for being connected)
- AK=13 points (6 points for the ace, 5 points for the king plus 2 points for being connected)
- AQ's=13 points (6 points for the ace, 4 points for the queen plus 3 points for being suited)
- T,T=12 points (2 points for each ten plus 8 points for a pair)
- AJ's=12 points (6 points for the ace, 3 points for the jack plus 3 points for being suited)
- AT's=11 points (6 points for the ace, 2 points for the ten plus 3 points for being suited)
- KJ's=11 points (5 points for the king, 3 points for the jack plus 3 points for being suited)
- KQ=11 points (5 points for the king, 4 points for the queen plus 2 points for being connected)
- 9,9=10 points (1 point for each 9 plus 8 points for a pair)
- AQ=10 points (6 points for the ace, 4 points for the queen)
It is interesting to note the value difference of 3 points between AQ's and AQ. This demonstrates the importance of suiting and is helpful in evaluating the correct value of a AQ starting hand. Suited it is definitely playable while unsuited it can be a marginal hand often played for more than it's worth.