Best Poker Starting Hands List
The best and worst Texas hold'em starting hands Top 10 best starting hands in Texas hold'em. Below you can see the top 10 starting hands in Texas hold'em listed (the little 's' stands for suited and the 'o' for off suit or unsuited). What makes these starting hands so great?
Starting Hand Selection:Chen Formula : Sklansky Starting Hand Groups
In Texas Holdem, it is important to have good starting hand selection. This is important as it prevents you from entering pots with sub-standard hands, which could eventually lead to you losing a lot of money in the process.
'Starting hand selection' is simply choosing the good hands over the bad, and thus folding the bad hands when you get them.
It is true that any hand can win in Texas Holdem (or poker in general for that matter), but the fact of the matter is that some hands will win more than others. So if we stick with the good hands, then we should see better results in the long run.
Poker Hand Rankings - Texas Holdem Starting Hands Chart. At the bottom of this page is a comprehensive listing of Texas Hold'em starting hands based on their EV (expected value). Expected value is the average number of big blinds this hand will make or lose. Although the order of the best poker hands to start with is sometimes contested, this list will give you a rough idea of which hands are stronger than others: #1. Pocket Aces (A♠ A♥). The very best starting hand in Texas Hold'em. The Top 24 Hold’Em Starting Hand Rankings. To help you out, I have also included the top 24 no-limit hold’em starting hands to give you a further idea of what beats what in poker. I based this list on both raw equities as well as post-flop playability. I have used over 10 years of experience in both tournaments and cash games to compile.
Basic starting hand selection.
Top tier starting hands - top 2% of starting hands.
Good Texas Holdem starting hands are typically hands like big pocket pairs and big connecting cards. So some of the top starting hands would be:
- AA
- KK
- AKs
The little ’s’ indicates that the cards are suited, which will increase the value of the cards because it makes it more likely that they will be able to make a flush compared to if the cards were not suited.
This is obviously the top tier when it comes to starting hands, and if we were to only ever be dealt these starting hands we would be making a lot of money. In fact, if we folded every other hand that we were dealt and only played these hands, there is a fair chance that we would be winning money in the long run. But this would only work at the lower limits where other players probably wouldn’t be aware that we only play premium hands.
Second tier starting hands.
If we only ever played with this elite group of cards, we would be folding numerous hands along the way and missing out on other opportunities to win money. Even though these are the cream of the crop when it comes to starting hands, there are still other great hands out there that can win us a lot of money in the long run if we play them.
Such hands are:
- AK
- AQs
- AJs
- JJ
- TT
This gives us another 6 starting hands that we can play with, increasing the number of pots that we will be entering. Although these are not as good as the first set of premium hands mentioned, they are still great starting hands that should help us to win money.
Top 10 Texas Hold’em starting hands.
Now if we stick with this set of 10 starting hands we should definitely by on the right track to winning some money from poker. So for any player new to the game you should try your best to stick to the following top 10 hands (also throwing in some of top 20 hands if you have good position):
- A A
- K K
- Q Q
- A K (suited)
- A Q (suited)
- J J
- K Q (suited)
- A J (suited)
- A K
- T T
- A T (suited)
- K J (suited)
- A Q
- 9 9
- Q J (suited)
- K T (suited)
- 8 8
- Q T (suited)
- A 9 (suited)
- A J
These hands can be played profitable from most positions by experienced players, but you should only play these hands from late position if there has been no action before you (no betting or raising) if you are still learning the basics.
As your game improves, you can look to open up your starting hand requirements and require more marginal hands like suited connectors. However, if you’re new to the game you are better off sticking with the big cards that hit bigger flops and make post-flop play a hell of a lot easier for you.
Starting hand selection and table position.
Your table position should always play a big role in determining the range of hands that you choose to play with.
You should stick to playing much stronger hands from early position than you would from late position.
This means that if you are in one of the early position seats, you should stick to playing the top two tiers of hands and avoid lesser hands like; AQo, AJs, AT, KQs and so on. Conversely, if you are in late position and there has been little action before you, you can afford to play these sort of hands far more comfortably.
Why is table position important in starting hand selection?
If you are one of the first to act in a hand, you are going to be at a serious disadvantage to the rest of the players who are acting after you. Therefore, to avoid making things worse, you do not want to be entering a pot with anything less than a premium hand.
Acting first means that you are going to have little information on your opponents. If you are playing with a mediocre hand, it is likely that you are going to be in a spot where you have no idea whether you have the best hand or not. These situations are the ones that lose you the most money in poker, so avoid falling into them by playing stronger hands from early position that will make it easier to determine whether or not you have the best hand.
The importance of starting hand selection.
Starting hand selection is key because it helps to save us from sticky situations post flop, especially if we are new to the game.
Starting hand selection example.
Say for example we are not exercising very good starting hand selection and we decide to call a raise with K T. The flop then comes K 8 2 giving us top pair, which looks like a very strong hand. Our opponent bets into us and we decide to call, because after all we do have top pair.
The turn comes a 4, and our opponent bets once again. We have top pair and we call seeing as we are still happy with the strength of our hand.
The river comes a 7, and our opponent bets into us one final time. We make the call with our top pair thinking we might still have the best hand, but our opponent turns over K Q.
He also has a pair of Kings but he has the higher kicker, so he takes down the pot.
Starting hand selection example evaluation.
This is an all too common problem for poker beginners, and it could have been so easily avoided by being a little stricter with our starting hand selection. Having top pair is great, but all so often an opponent can easily beat it with a better kicker. This is why it is important to have two big cards instead of one, because the size of our kicker can play a vital role in determining who the winner of the pot will be.
You are dealt two cards in Texas Hold’em; make sure that they are both good cards before you enter a pot. An ace with a low kicker is going to lose you more money than it wins.
Don’t be tempted to call raises or enter pots with hands like A4 (rag aces) or K7, because they will just get you into more trouble than they are worth. Make sure that you are the one with the better kicker every time and take the money from the players who are entering the pots with weaker hands than you.
It is actually reasonable to bring down our starting hand requirements if we have good position. Position will give us an advantage over our opponents if we are last to act, so we do not necessarily have to have such a strong hand to play with because will be obtaining information from the way our opponent plays because they will be acting first.
This information and knowledge of our opponent’s hand from the way they play will compensate for the fact that our starting hand is a little weaker than normal. However, we still have to be prepared to fold as having position does not guarantee that we will win the hand, it simply gives an advantage. It is advised that you only enter pots with weaker hands in position once you have become a little more experienced.
Conclusion.
List Of Poker Starting Hands Best To Worst
As you continue to play poker and gain experience from the game, it is a good idea to start expanding your starting hand requirements and experimenting here and there. However, if you are new to the game it is strongly advised that you stick to the big cards so that you give yourself the best opportunity to win money from poker.
If you are entering pots with a poor hand, you should be expecting to see poor results.
Go back to the awesome Texas Hold'em Strategy.
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Best Starting Hands in Omaha Hi Lo
Best Poker Starting Hands Ranked
Omaha and Omaha Hi Lo is a much more complicated game then Hold’em simply because you have a wider range of starting hands seen by players due to the additional cards and combinations players can make. If you’ve never played Omaha and not quite sure what we’re referring to you can read our “How to Play Omaha Guide” which will help you with the basics of the game including format.
Since Omaha and Omaha Hi Lo use four hole cards, it’s absolutely critical that you understand the starting hand requirements in both versions. Making poor decisions on which hands to play and which hands to fold will ultimately cost you your bankroll. Although you’ll find plenty of beginners do end up falling for some of the more common omaha myths when choosing their starting hands.
Below you will find general outline to the starting hand requirements in Omaha Hi Lo. Omaha Hi Lo allows you to play for both the hi and low pot and because of this the starting hand requirements in Omaha 8 vary significantly from Omaha Hi since the goal is to be able to play for and win both pots. The starting hands below are dependent on situation, although you may not be able to bluff your way through this game, you can pick up a few additional big blinds through position and restricting your starting hands. Remember two things – the game is made up by strong hands and you need to play for both pots if you plan on coming out ahead.
Premium Starting Hands in Omaha High-Lo
The best starting hands in Omaha Hi Lo include:
1. A-A-2-x
2. A-A-3-x
3. A-2-3-x
4. A-2-4-x
5. A-2-x-x
6. A-3-4-x
7. A-A-x-x
While the chart above gives you a general outline of the best starting hands in Omaha Hi Lo, you do need to realize that it is still quite broad as the ‘x’ represents nearly any other card. A suited hand is significantly stronger than a non-suited hand even if they both fall in the same category. Suppose you have the option to play A-A-Q-K rainbow or A-A-2-K suited. The obvious choice of hand would be the later since your able to play for high and low, while giving you a chance at a flush, full house, or straight for hi hands. A tip to keep in mind when determining your hand strength in Omaha Hi Lo using the chart above is that the majority of cards 5 – 9 are essentially worthless. They can be used to pick up a few blinds when in position or playing against a loose table.
Ten of the Best Starting Hands in Omaha High-Low
These hands are considered the top hands in Omaha Hi Lo:
1. A-A-2-3 Double-suited
2. A-A-2-4 Double-suited
3. A-A-2-3 Suited
4. A-A-2-5 Double-suited
5. A-A-2-4 Suited
6. A-A-3-4 Double-suited
7. A-A-2-3 Non-suited
8. A-A-2-2 Double-suited
9. A-A-3-5 Double-suited
10. A-A-2-6 Double-suited
Playable Starting Hands in Omaha High-Low
Below is a summary of hands that are playable starting hands in Omaha Hi Lo
A-A-2-x
A-A-3-x
A-A-4-5
A-2-3-x
A-2-K-K
A-2-Q-Q
A-2-J-J
A-3-4-5
A-A-x-x
A-2-K-Q
A-2-K-J
A-2-x-x (suited Ace)
A-3-K-K
A-3-4-x
2-3-4-5 (This hand is dependent on the Ace hitting the flop. If the flop doesn’t show an Ace you should fold)
J-Q-K-A
T-J-Q-K
K-K-Q-J
Q-J-T-9
2-3-4-x (Another hand that depends on the Ace. If no Ace hits the flop, fold the hand on first bet).