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Texas Holdem Starting Hands for Beginners
Many poker books group starting hands by the author’s general "power ranking" (putting hands like AA and AK in the same group), I have taken a different approach to thinking about starting hands. In general, hands that are similar tend to get played the same way. Good players don’t typically play AA and AK the same way, therefore they should be in different groups. As a new player, you should get familiar with the different "types" of good hands you’ll see, then move on to understanding how each of those "types" are played most effectively.
NOTE: The groupings below do not make any distinction between suited and unsuited
cards. You should only give marginal extra "starting value" to suited cards. I know
they’re pretty, but they only give you a slightly smaller chance (4% or so) of winning
the hand over their non-suited counterparts. Beginners should focus more on the
face value, and less on whether or not they’re suited.
- Big Pairs
(AA, KK, QQ, JJ)
- Big Aces
(AK, AQ, AJ)
- Middle Pairs
(TT, 99, 88, 77)
- High Cards
(KQ, QJ, KJ, AT, KT, QT, JT)
- Low pairs
(66,55,44,33,22)
- Middle Connectors
(T9,98,87,76,65)
- Suited Aces
(A4 suited, A8 suited, etc)
As a brand new player, I would recommend starting with groups 1 and 2 on this poker
hand chart. You’ll spend
a lot of time just watching things go by, but as a new player, that’s a good thing.
Get comfortable with each group before including more in your starting hands. Understanding
the actual value of each group will help you make the most money from each hand
in that group.
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