If you plan to turn your no deposit poker money into a real bankroll, you will want to take a hard look at the hands that are good poker hands and those that are not. THE BIGGEST MISTAKE BEGINNING POKER PLAYERS MAKE IS PLAYING TOO MANY HANDS. If you just want to have some quick fun, then any two cards will do. If you want to win, then you’ll need to be selective and aggressive. Play only the best hands and play them aggressively. This selective/aggressive trait is one that all of the professional poker players share.

Printable Starting Hands Chart. A neat and tidy, A4 size starting hand chart which you can print and keep in front of you for quick reference while you are playing. To download the Starting Hands Chart right click on the link and select save target as. It is a PDF file, so to view and print this you will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader.

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For a full explanation of this chart, click here.

The starting hand chart above is a great guide on hand strength. The first chart shows pairs and suited cards. The strength of pairs is pretty obvious. With a pair, you already have a made hand that can possibly win without the help of the community cards to follow. Suited cards also add strength. What we mean by suited is two cards sharing the same suit. So an Ace and King, both hearts is referred to as “ace king suited”. If the two cards are different suits, say an ace of hearts and king of diamonds, this is “ace king offsuit” or unsuited. Suited cards are more valuable than unsuited cards because they give you a better chance of making a flush. Finally, you will notice that many of the playable hands are “connected”. Example, a queen and a jack. They are close together in their rank. Playing connected cards gives you a better chance of making a straight. Cards that are suited and connected are good hands to have, because they give you more ways to win. Ace King suited is one of the best hands in poker, as you have outs to making big pairs, the best straight and the best flush.

The second chart shows unpaired and unsuited combinations. You’ll notice that there are many more unplayable hands on this chart. If someone else raises, the vast majority of the hands on this chart are unplayable, even among the hands that are color coded red and yellow! A raise from another player generally means they have a strong hand, and the only two hands that could be considered very strong on this second chart are A-K and perhaps A-Q, both offsuit.

Both of these charts deal with “position”. What this simply means is your position at the table relative to the dealer chip or button. Most authors vary on what they consider early, middle and late position, but a good quick guide is this. Consider the first 3 seats to the left of the dealer button to be early position. The next 3 seats are middle position, and the final 2 seats and player with the dealer button is late position. The later position you are, the better, because it allows you to see the actions of players ahead of you. You will have a better idea of whether or not your hand is good when the action comes to you. If you hold QJ suited in late position, and there are 3 big raises ahead of you, that QJ suited doesn’t look nearly as good as it did when you first peeked at it!

This starting hand chart is actually very loose by most standards. It wouldn’t be a bad idea at all to cross off some of the lesser hands if your goal is to build a bankroll from just a few no deposit bonuses. The better the hands you start with, the more aggressively you can play them and the better chance you’ll have of stacking the chips up in your pile.

Many players jump into poker and play any two cards because they’re just looking to have some fun for the evening. In my opinion, it’s a lot more fun to still be playing a year later thanks to the kind donations from those “good time” players! One final thought: A winning poker player is a studious poker player. One doesn’t have to be a genius to make money at poker, but you do have to be willing to read and study the game. The short explanation of position and starting hands here is a good point to begin, but do yourself a favor, skip a couple of fast food burgers and invest $10 or $15 into a good texas holdem strategy book. You will be amazed at the edge you’ll have after learning the basic fundamentals of poker strategy.

Holdem Starting Hands Chart

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.

• 2Limit hand rankings

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).

An alternative means of making this calculation

First Step As confirmed above.

There are 2652 possible combination of opening hand.

Second Step

There are 6 different combos of each pair. 9h9c, 9h9s, 9h9d, 9c9s, 9c9d, 9d9s

To calculate the odds of being dealt a pair

2652 (possible opening hands) divided by 12 (the number of any particular pair being dealt. As above)

2652/12 = 221

• Suited hands, which contain two cards of the same suit (e.g. A♣6♣). Four hands out of 17 will be suited, and each suited configuration occurs with probability 2/663 (P(suited) = 12/51 = 4/17).

• Offsuit hands, which contain two cards of a different suit and rank (e.g. K♠J♥). Twelve out of 17 hands will be nonpair, offsuit hands, each of which occurs with probability 2/221 (P(offsuit non-pair) = 3*(13-1)/51 = 12/17).

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.

There are 25 starting hands with a probability of winning at a 10-handed table of greater than 1/7.^[1]

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^[2] 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.^[3]

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.^[4]

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.'^[5][6] 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. ^No-Limit Texas Hold'em by Angel Largay
2. ^David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth (1999). Hold 'em Poker for Advanced Players. Two Plus Two Publications. ISBN1-880685-22-1
3. ^Hold'em Excellence: From Beginner to Winner by Lou Krieger, Chapter 5, pages 39 - 43, Second Edition
4. ^http://www.pokerroom.com/poker/poker-school/ev-stats/total-stats-by-card/
5. ^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.
6. ^Martain, Tim (2007-07-15). 'A little luck helps out'. Sunday Tasmanian. Retrieved 2010-01-10.

Poker Starting Hand And Betting Charts