There are 1 326 different starting hands in Texas hold’em, but if you leave out the different colour constellations there are totally 169.
Which starting hands a player should choose is something that has been discussed in many books about poker. Sometimes the hands has been divided into categories. This is a good way to get an oversight, therefore should the method be used here also. The categories below are only based on the objective strength of the starting hands and it’s not meant that a specific play should be applied on starting hands in the same category.
In the choice of starting hands you must also consider how many players there are on the table, which structure you playing in and your own playing style (other articles on this site focus on these subjects).
Category 1
A-A
K-K
Q-Q
J-J
A-Ks
Category 2
A-Qs
K-Qs
A-Js
T-T
A-K
A-Ts
Category 3
A-Q
9-9
K-Js
8-8
A-J
K-Ts
Q-Js
K-Q
Category 4
A9s
QTs
77
JTs
A8s
A-T
K9s
A7s
KJ
6-6
T-9s
| Starting hands | |||
It’s not for sure a list like this will correspond to which starting hands that wins most in practical play. This depends on different factors such that is very easy to over play some cards, like A-K. Another kind of “problem hands” is J-J and T-T. These are power hands, but the value of these hands decrease when a queen, a king ore an ace hits the table. | |||
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