NL Hold’em Starting Hand Charts

In poker, players form sets of five playing cards, called hands, according to the rules of the game. Each hand has a rank, which is compared against the ranks of other hands participating in the showdown to decide who wins the pot. In high games, like Texas hold 'em and seven-card stud, the highest-ranking hands win.In low games, like razz, the lowest-ranking hands. In high games, like Texas hold 'em and seven-card stud, the highest-ranking hands win. In low games, like razz, the lowest-ranking hands win. In high-low split games, both the highest-ranking and lowest-ranking hands win, though different rules are used to rank the high and low hands. A lot of Texas Hold 'Em strategy is based on the cards in your hand. You must be willing to suffer through a series of poor hands (e.g. 5-8, 2-6, 4-9) without getting impatient.

What’s the Best Hold’em Hand? If you’re pre-flop the answer is easy: pocket aces.

One aspect of the game of No-Limit Hold’em that causes beginning players much grief is deciding which hands to play and which hands to dump. NL Hold’em is much more difficult than Limit Hold’em because the value of a hand depends on so many factors other than just the cards in your hand. Despite this difficulty, our coaches believe that following some general guidelines and adjusting from these is a better solution than having no guidelines at all. Given that well over half of your profitability in NL Hold’em is based on hand selection alone, we have developed these charts to help you better determine whether to play or fold.

There are no perfect No-Limit starting hand charts. That is because there are many factors that affect your decision, and charts cannot account for all of them. Some of these include:

1. The size of your opponent's stacks.
2. How loose or tight, passive or aggressive, your opponents are.
3. Where these opponents are located at the table – for example, does an aggressive player still have to act after you?
4. Your image at the table – for example, how tight or tricky you are perceived.

That being said, these charts will serve you well in most typical low-stakes No-Limit cash games, such as games with blinds of $1/$2, and home games. These games typically have several loose players at the table, and good opportunities for winning big pots with suited connectors and pocket pairs. With practice, you will be able to be a consistently winning player with these charts as a starting point. As you improve, you'll find yourself making adjustments to these charts based on the factors listed above, and more.

AGAIN: These charts are a good starting point for beginners. Specifically, Chart #1 recommends a significant amount of limping. This is great in loose, passive games but less often seen in tougher games. You’ll find other training material on Advanced Poker Training that may recommend a more aggressive approach for more experienced players.

Best Starting Texas Hold'em Hands

Note: It would be a serious mistake to apply these hand charts before reading the Frequent Asked Questions first.

CHART #1 ‐ LOOSE, PASSIVE GAME (OFTEN 4-5 LIMPERS PER HAND)
NO ONE HAS RAISED YET

• Raise Always
• Call from Early Position, otherwise raise
• Call always
• Call from Middle or Late Position if the conditions are right (see Frequently Asked Questions)

CHART #2 ‐ TIGHTER GAME (FEWER LIMPERS) OR MORE AGGRESSIVE GAME
NO ONE HAS RAISED YET

• Raise Always
• Call from Early Position, otherwise raise
• Call (or Raise) from Middle or Late Position if the conditions are right (see Frequently Asked Questions)

CHART #3 ‐ THERE HAS BEEN A SINGLE RAISE
(3‐5 TIMES THE BIG BLIND) BEFORE YOU

• Re‐Raise Always
• Call from Early Position, otherwise re‐raise
• Call always
• Call from Middle or Late Position if the conditions are right (see Frequently Asked Questions)

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

For the hands in yellow, what do you mean when you say to play these hands if the conditions are right? The hands in yellow are speculative hands. They should always be folded from Early Position. From other positions, they can be profitable given the right conditions. Some of the questions to ask yourself:

1. Are there other players who have called so far (the more, the better)?
2. Are the players who have called playing poorly after the flop? Will they pay me off if I hit something?
3. Is there an aggressive player still to act behind me (you might get raised and have to fold)?
4. If there has been a raise and no other callers, what chance do I have of using my position after the flop to win the hand even if I don't improve (Chart #3 only)?

Why does Chart #2 say to sometimes raise with the hands in yellow, but Chart #1 does not? We have different goals in mind. Using Chart #1, we want to call to encourage additional players to enter the pot. These hands will be immensely profitable when our loose, passive opponents enter the hand, and get trapped when we flop a set, or make a well-disguised straight. When using Chart #2, however, we want to size up the opponents still to act. If they are tight, we can raise. Sometimes, we'll pick up the blinds. Other times, our pre-flop aggression will allow us to take down the pot on the flop.

What's the difference between AKs and AKo? AKs means an Ace and King of the same suit. AKo means an Ace and King of different suits.

What are early, middle, and late position? Early Position is generally the first 2 (in a nine player game) or 3 (in a ten player game) positions after the blinds. Late Position is the “cutoff” position (to the right of the dealer), and dealer button positions. Middle Position is everything in between.

How much should I raise? As a general rule, raise 3 to 4 times the big blind, plus 1 extra big blind for every player who has called before you. So if there are 2 callers already, raise between 5 and 6 times the big blind.

What if someone raises after I call? Whether you call the raise depends on how much money the raiser has for you to win, how many other players are involved, and what type of hand you have. As a general rule, if you have a pocket pair, lean towards calling. If there are a lot of other players (and therefore a big pot), lean towards calling. In general, fold suited connectors from early position. Fold hands like KQ that don't play well against a raiser.

How do I play from the blinds? From the small blind, play the same hands you would play from late position, plus a few more. But don't call with junk hands like T5o, just because it is “cheap”. From the big blind, if there is a raise to you, play like you would if you had already called from early position.

The chart says to fold KQo to a raise. Really? Yes, this hand performs very poorly against typical raising hands. Against AK, AQ, AA, KK, QQ, you are a big underdog. Other typical raising hands like JJ, TT, 99, AJs, are slightly ahead of you as well. The only time you might call or re-raise is from late position, if the opener was in middle or late position, indicating they might have a wider range of hands.

I was told to fold AJo from Early Position, why do you say to call with it? Folding AJo is not a bad idea in many games. We included it because, at low stakes tables (even tight or aggressive ones), the players are often playing badly enough after the flop that it can be profitable. We used data from millions of hands of low-limit poker to analyze this. The same could be said for KQo, ATs, and KJs – you can make a small profit in the long run at most low-stakes games, but folding would be perfectly acceptable from early position.

Can I use these charts in a NL Hold'em tournament? The charts would be best applicable to the early stages of a NL tournament, when everyone has a deep stack. In the middle and later stages, they should not be used.

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Texas Hold’em is undoubtedly the world’s most popular poker variant. This fast, action-packed casino game can be played at land-based casinos and online at Borgata. Hold’em, as some call it, is a game of skill and making money out of it starts with having a solid understanding of the different hands and knowing how to play them.

Understanding Poker Hand Notation

Before we can get started with the opening hand recommendations in Hold’em, let’s first start by looking at the hand notation in online poker games.

In poker variants, including Hold’em, there are symbols used to describe the diverse hands available. There’s no need to worry as these are pretty simple and straightforward. Below are the different annotations you will find:

Best Starting Hold'em Hands

· S – suited cards

· O – two cards from different suits (unsuited)

· + – means all hands ranking above the stated hand are included

For instance, 77+ indicates a pair of sevens and any other pairs ranking above it such as 88, 99, TT, AA. Pairs such as 22, 33, 44, 55 and 66s would be excluded. The same applies to connectors, the + symbol means that similar hands using higher cards are included eg. T7 (Ten-Seven) would include T8, T9, JT (Jack-Ten), QJ (Queen-Jack) KQ (King-Queen) and AK (Ace-King).

If symbols that denote suited and unsuited cards are not available, then it’s not important if the cards are suited or not.

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. A♥5 ♥, whereas unsuited cards belong to different suits K♠10♦. On the other hand – no pun intended – unconnected cards will have one, two, three or more gaps (T72) making it difficult to hit a straight hand, and connected cards vice versa (T89).

1. Pairs: A♣ A♥, K♠ K♦, 7♥ 7♠

2. Suited Connectors: K♦A♦, J ♣ Q♣, 10 ♥9 ♥

3. Offsuit Connectors: 4♣ 3♦, 9♥ 8, 10♠ J♣

4. Suited Gappers: 10 ♥8 ♥, 5 ♠2♠, K♦J♦

5. Unconnected Cards: 8♦3♠, 10 ♥6 ♣, Q♣ 10♦

Moreover, it is also important to familiarize yourself with the different rankings of Texas Hold’em handsto know which are worth playing, and how they change according to your position on the table at an online casino. For instance, cards such as 7♦ 2♥ or 9♥ 4♠ are very weak to even consider past the flop. Whereas, strong hands such as A♣, A♦, 10♥ 10♦ and K♠ K♥ should always be played from any position. A three of a kind always wins to a two pair, and a flush always beats a straight.

How to Play

In Hold’em poker, players need to make the best 5-card hand possible using their two hole cards and five community cards on the table. Besides your position, you will need to consider other factors such as the number of players on the table as well as their playing style when deciding on placing your wager preflop.

Below is a quick summary of the basic Texas Hold’em rules:

• When the game begins, all players on the table are dealt two hole cards (also known as pocket cards) face-down. This means no other players can see your cards.
• Thereafter comes the Flop betting round, which consists of 3 community cards dealt face-up for players to use.
• The dealer will then deal the fourth card, known as the Turn.
• The Turn is followed by the River, which is the fifth and last community card.
• Players get to bet, check or fold as the betting rounds take place.

Pocket Pairs

Texas Holdem Best Hands

Aces – a pair of Aces is by far the best starting hand in Hold’em. However, if nothing improves from the community cards you only have a pair. It is quite rare, however, to ever go wrong with this hand preflop.

Kings – a pair of Kings are almost as good as a pair of Aces preflop. However, it is not very often that you get dealt any of them. Although they are premium preflop holdings, they don’t play too well against multiple opponents. Sometimes it is better to raise preflop to avoid having sets of pairs.

Queens and Jacks – these are middle pocket pairs, and with either of them, you should be confident that you have a good starting hand. They are very foldable preflop, but they can also be the trickiest hands to play. Other pocket pairs falling under this range include 55 through 99.Low pairs – these are hands below 55, all the way down to 22. It is not a wise move to raise first on low pairs, but they tend to be profitable at a later position and likely to result in a three of a kind or even great, a four of a kind which pays even more.

Suited Cards

Starting with two suited cards is good to score a flush or even better, a straight flush in this online casino game. However, the odds of getting a flush with two suited hands during the flop are as low as 0.8%. You are more likely to get a flush after the river and at only around 6.5% of the time, and a straight flush with a much lesser probability.

Connectors – Suitedconnectors include a combination of Aces and Kings, which is a premium hand suitable to play from any position, as well as good hands like T9, KQ, JT and QJs which are also great to play from most positions on the table.

54s and 76s are lower suited cards that should be folded from an early position and playable as a raise first from late positions.

Gappers – suited one-gappers have the potential to win big pots if they connect with the board. For instance, if you have a T8 then a 9 and other corresponding cards appear in the community cards, you win. Big gappers are far more unlikely to win but are playable from a late position.

Conclusion

Using the guidelines laid out in this article, together with a Texas Hold’em starting hands chart is a great way to enhance your playing skills. The more you Hold’em the more you will start opening a diverse range of starting hands – there are a whole lot of them, as already mentioned. Borgata offers the best poker and other entertaining online casino games for you to enjoy. Get started on making better Hold’em opening hands on BorgataOnline today!