Texas Holdem Hands To Play
- How To Play Texas Holdem For Beginners
- Best Texas Hold'em Hands To Play
- Texas Hold'em Hands To Play Preflop Rankings
- Best Texas Hold'em Hands To Play
- Texas Holdem Best Starting Hands
- Best Hands To Play Texas Holdem
Remember, poker is a battle royale. When you prepare to don your battle armor, be. At the begging of each round of Texas Hold 'Em poker, you are dealt two cards. These are your hole cards or starting hand. Those hole cards can eventually be used with the cards revealed in the flop, turn and river to assemble a (hopefully) winning hand. After you are dealt your starting cards, there is a round of betting. Texas Hold'em is always a game you should play with the long term in mind, if your poker hand has a 55/45 advantage compared to your opponents, you can lose it 10 times in a row. But if you play the hand 10,000 times on average you will win 55% (5.500) times.This is why good bankroll management is important. A quick test of your poker skills.
There are over one hundred possible starting hands in Texas Holdem. That’s just if you take unique combinations. Start taking into account suit, and the number increases dramatically.
Statistically speaking, you’re just as likely to get any one of these starting hands as any other, though there are certain hands you’d much rather get than others. Also, in terms of game theory, some opening hands are a lot more interesting than others. You know what you’re going to do with a pair of aces. Do you know what you’re going to do with ace-two though?
Unfortunately, it’s impossible in place to go through the strategy of every opening hand in poker, we can highlight a certain number of more interesting hands. I’ve chosen five hands from the list of possible hands to discuss below in greater detail. You are likely to run into them if you play often enough, and their relative strengths present interesting challenges.
1 – Pair of Twos
Congratulations… You have a pair. Aren’t you lucky?
Sure. Go ahead and start grumbling now because of all the pairs you have. This one is undoubtedly, statistically the worse pair you can have. Yes, it will beat any hand that doesn’t have a pair, but how often are you likely to have any opponents that don’t have anything and stay in the game?
The answer is not that many. Don’t worry, though, starting off with a pair of twos isn’t as bad as you think if one of two things are true:
- You have position
- There aren’t many people at the table
According to computer models, you are dead even to win with a pair of twos in straight-up play and you will win about a third of the time in a three-player game. Your odds of winning drop off pretty dramatically from there, however. The only thing that could save you, though, is position.
In a lot of ways, a pair of twos is like a stealth attack. As your opponents survey the board and try to figure out what you have, they’re probably not thinking you have pocket twos. So, if you draw into a set or even manage to get three, four, five, six on the board, there’s a chance you can sneak up on the others and win some money.
Still, to win with this hand more often than not, you need to know what the other players are going to do. That’s why you need position. If you find that everyone else is betting aggressive, there’s a good chance your twos are no good, so get out of the hand. If, however, everyone is lukewarm, you might have some money to make.
The Strategy for This Hand Is as Follows:If you’re in a game with any more than three people and you don’t have position, fold and fight another day. If you do have position, call any modest bets or make a medium bet of your own. If someone comes at you hard and raises or re-raises, unless you are working their tells, fold and get them in the next hand.
After the flop and each subsequent card, take the pulse of the table. If someone starts to bid more aggressively and you didn’t get a third two, you shouldn’t be out too much money.
After the last card is dealt and no one feels good about their cards, you have to decide how aggressive you want to be. My advice is to always keep things on the low to moderate side of bidding (think fractions of a pot). Even if someone missed their draw, you might be able to get money from them if you bet lower amounts than getting too aggressive in the end.
2 – Pair of 10s
In some ways, a pair of 10s is going to be like a pair of twos. There are a lot more hands that pocket 10s will beat than pocket twos, but there are a bunch of hands that you’d probably rather have.
Then again, this is poker, and you have to play the hand you were dealt and, surprisingly, pocket 10s are a lot better than you might think. In head-to-head play, pocket 10s win about three-fourths of the time and rarely wins less than 20% of the time, no matter the number of opponents.
On the other hand, pocket 10s don’t beat a lot of hands that people are likely to keep. Also, 10s can appear at the end, middle, or beginning of a straight, so you need to be careful that if you get a set of 10s, that someone else didn’t just complete a straight and are now set to take you down.
Therefore, you really have two options with pocket 10s and how you play them is up to you and your playstyle. If you like to play tight or are light on chips and you have more than two opponents, toss the 10s. You’d do better not taking the risk.
If you’re in the mood to get risky or you have a fewer number of opponents, play 10s like they were much better cards. Be aggressive, make the table think you’re sitting on a gold mine, at least until the flop. If you get your set and there’s no obvious straight draw, keep playing aggressively.
If you don’t get that set, you can still play tough because you do have good cards, and you should be able to scare off the table with them if you bet from a position of strength.
3 – King-Queen Suited
King-queen suited is going to win the hand a little over 60% in head-to-head games, but quickly loses its power in larger games. You have the start off a pretty powerful straight and the chance to make two decent pairs.
If you are dealt king-queen suited to start off, you have to at least make a bet preflop and call just about anything unless someone goes all-in or is just being crazy.
The thing you have to remember is that your opening hand is worthless without some help. You need to be dealt another king or a queen while avoiding an ace to have a winning hand. That’s what you need to call preflop so that you can see what help the board gives you.
Ideally, you want a queen on the flop with no ace. This gives you the best pair with the second best kicker. Either way, feel free to bet aggressively throughout the hand until an ace shows up. Then, you have to assume that someone has a literal ace in the hole unless their betting shows you otherwise.
How To Play Texas Holdem For Beginners
One last thing, keep an eye out for a flush. That’s one thing this starting hand gives that you can use to your advantage and is another reason to see that flop.
4 – Ace-Two Offsuit
The strategy for ace-two is a lot like the strategy for pocket twos. It’s good at small tables or when you have position.
If neither of those two things are true, you might want to consider folding. Yes, it can feel painful to fold an ace, since it’s an ace after all. However, there are others at the table who probably also have aces in the hole and chances are, they have better kickers than you.
5 – Queen-Jack Offsuit
Percentage-wise, queen-jack suited wins almost the same amount as king-queen suited. It also has a sharp drop off in its efficiency as the number of players climb.
Still, in a lot of ways, this hand should be played about the same way as king-queen suited except that you don’t have the chance to earn a flush draw. You also can’t be quite as aggressive with queen-jack as you can with king-queen because jacks are easier to beat than kings.
Still, preflop, bet with confidence. Feel free to call any reasonable opening bet and don’t be afraid to call a bet outside your comfort zone so that you can see the flop. Also, don’t be afraid to make your own bet preflop, though I wouldn’t bet a significant amount because there are several ways to beat you.
Once you see the flop, you have decisions to make. If you didn’t flop a pair or aren’t set up for a straight, it might be a good time to get out of the hand since your chances of success aren’t as high as king-queen. Then again, if no one is betting aggressively, there’s no harm in riding the hand out and testing your luck.
Conclusion
Hopefully, seeing how these five hands can be played will give you confidence next time you see them. As always, poker is a dynamic game and circumstances can change. The best poker strategy will change from hand to hand, but I think the following strategy will help make you some money if you follow it.
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.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:
· 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
Best Texas Hold'em Hands To Play
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 ♥
Texas Hold'em Hands To Play Preflop Rankings
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.
Best Texas Hold'em Hands To Play
Pocket Pairs
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
Texas Holdem Best Starting Hands
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
Best Hands To Play Texas Holdem
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!