1. Texas Holdem Best Hands Preflop Wins
2. Texas Holdem Best Hands Preflop Head
3. Texas Holdem Best Hands Preflop Spread
4. Texas Hold'em Best Hands To Play
5. Texas Holdem Best Hands Preflop Games
6. Texas Holdem Best Hands Preflop Play

Below you'll find a list of Texas Hold'em starting hands organized by relative strength.The following charts contains every 2-card possible combination you can be dealt in Texas Hold'em. Each hand is followed by its long-term winning percentage (out of 100, of course) against a specific number of opponents holding random cards. Jan 01, 2017 How Strong Is My Preflop Hands in Texas Hold'em? Learning how to assess the preflop hand strength is crucial to hand ranking in Texas Holde'm. Find out the best hands to play from every table position.

I’ve read that you can become a breakeven Texas Hold’em player just by mastering preflop strategy. While your results depend on your skill and your luck, I know for a fact that you can’t be profitable in Texas Hold’em unless your play during all the streets of the game are top notch.

Some of this advice applies to both limit and no limit Hold’em, while some of it only applies to one or the other. I’ll include that information with each tip. Keep reading below to learn some useful tips to improve your strategy while playing Texas Hold’em online and offline.

1 – Raise or Fold

One thing I learned early in my career as a Texas Hold’em player is that you should raise or fold any time you’re the first player in the pot.

If you have a lousy hand, fold it.

If you don’t feel good betting or raising with the hand, it’s not worth calling with.

Players who try to get lucky on the flop lose money fast, and they lose money consistently. If you have lousy cards preflop, even if you hit a flop, it might be inferior to someone else’s hand which hit the flop.

And when you do have a good hand, by betting and raising with it, you simultaneously put pressure on your opponents to fold and build the size of the pot with a hand that has a good probability of winning that pot.

If you have strong enough hole cards, you can have the best hand on the flop even if you miss it completely.

2 – You Need an Even Bigger Hand If Someone Has Already Called

One of the reasons you raise with a big hand when you’re the first person in the pot is that you get a chance to pick up the blinds immediately.

If someone has already called in front of you, then you have to convince one more person to fold to pick up those blinds.

When multiple people have called in front of you, you have even more people to convince to fold. This means, if you’re going to raise here, you need a stronger hand.

Pay attention to the kinds of cards your opponents play.

If you pay close enough attention, you’ll have a good idea of what your opponents’ starting hand requirements are, and you’ll be able to make decisions accordingly.

3 – You Need an Even Bigger Hand Still If Someone Has Raised

If it seems like I’m hammering the idea that you should raise or fold by suggesting that you need strong hands preflop, then you’re paying attention.

Players don’t get into trouble with hands that they fold preflop. They also don’t get into trouble with hands they feel are good enough to re-raise with preflop.

They only get into trouble with hands they call raises with preflop because they have to figure out where they are on the flop.

Your opponent will miss the flop most of the time, too, but give him some credit for having a hand preflop if he raised with it.

This means sticking with premium hands like aces and kings if there’s been a raise in front of you.

4 – Pay Attention to Your Position

You need stronger cards to play from early position than you need to play from later position.

The reason for this is simple.

Let’s say you get a pair of sevens from early position, and you limp in with it which means, of course, that you weren’t paying attention to my first three preflop Hold’em tips, by the way.

You get a raise from the player behind you, and the player behind him reraises, too. You don’t have much choice at this point but to fold your pocket sevens, but you’ve lost a bet by doing so.

Texas Holdem Best Hands Preflop Wins

After all, with a raise and a re-raise behind you, someone probably has a pair bigger than yours in the hole. And if not, they’re at the least playing big cards like AK, AQ, or KQ.

Your only hope is that you hit a seven on the flop, but the odds of that are terrible because there are only 2 of those cards left in the deck.

Also, you’re going to be in early position on the flop, too, so you won’t have any hints as to what your opponents might have after the flop, either.

Suppose the flop comes A-K-6. You’re first to act. You can bet here, but if either of your opponents raise, your only smart move (again) is to fold. After all, they got into this hand with a raise and a re-raise preflop, so they showed strength.

They’re likely to have hit an ace or a king, and they’re also likely to have a big pair in the hole.

If you stick with premium cards from early position, you’ll do a lot better.

5 – Completing the Blind When You’re the Small Blind Makes Sense

Most of the time, the small blind is half the size of the big blind. This means that, if you have the chance to get in, it only costs you half as much to see the flop.

If it costs you half as much money to get into the pot, your pot odds double immediately. If you’d normally need a 10 to 1 probability of winning to make a call worthwhile, you only need a 5 to 1 probability of winning since you’re putting in half as much money.

Texas Holdem Best Hands Preflop Head

This doesn’t mean you should play anything from the small blind. And it sure doesn’t mean you should call a raise or a re-raise from the small blind.

Your job then is to fold if you miss the flop and play strong when you hit the flop hard.

Also, keep in mind that you’ll be out of position for the rest of the hand, so you really do need to hit the flop hard to stay in it at this point.

6 – Ace-King Is One of the Only Preflop Hands Worth Cold Calling

A cold call is when you call a bet that’s been raised but don’t re-raise with it.

Cold calling is almost always a mistake. It is similar to taking insurance when playing real money blackjack.

Ace-king is an exception. The thing about “big slick” is that it almost never wins unless it improves to a pair on the flop.

You don’t want to commit a lot of your chips preflop on this hand, but you also don’t want to give this one up without a fight.

It’s too strong a hand to fold, but it’s too weak to re-raise with. It’s also easy to see where you’re at when the flop hits.

Often, it’s just as good a play to raise with it. Some of it depends on your opponents. And some of it just has to do with avoiding being predictable.

7 – Pay Attention to Your Opponents Even If You’re Planning to Fold

Most of the time, your cards preflop won’t be good enough to play. A lot of Hold’em players stop paying attention to the hand as soon as they realize they’re going to fold. That’s a big mistake.

You should pay close attention to every hand that gets played so that you can decide what your opponents’ ranges are.

Some players might raise preflop with any pocket pair no matter how low. If that’s the case, you should be able to pick up on that. Other players are so tight that they might fold 35 hands in a row.

But if you’re not paying attention, you’re flying blind when you don’t have to.

Conclusion

Playing preflop Texas Hold’em is important. I’m not sure if it’s true that you can break even just by mastering this one aspect of the game.

The tips on this page should help you play better before the flop. And I hope these tips were better than the usual “play tight preflop and here are the starting hands worth playing” type of advice.

Hand Guide: Preflop > Flop > Turn > River

Preflop Planning is an excellent guide on how to think before the flop when deciding whether to fold, call or raise based on your position and starting hand. It's the perfect compliment to this article.

Preflop overview.

Before the flop is where it all starts, where you are forced to make your first important decision depending on all of the variables involved with the hand. It is important to make good, solid decisions before the flop, as it will form the foundations for how the rest of the hand will be played out.

If you make a high-quality decision before the flop, you will set the tone for the rest of the hand and give yourself the best opportunity to get into a moneymaking position. However, if you make a bad decision before the flop, you may well set yourself up for a big loss by getting yourself into a sticky position or missing out on a potentially rewarding hand.

Start as you mean to go on in every hand. Make quality plays at the beginning and continue throughout the rest of the hand.

Therefore after you have been dealt your cards preflop, it is important to take your time to evaluate all of the different variables in the hand, and not just make decisions on the cards that you are holding. It is important to consider your position and the type of opponents you are playing against, as well as know the correct starting hand requirements. So make sure you think very carefully before every flop and build the foundations for a profitable hand by making the correct preflop strategy decision.

Preflop starting hand selection.

Choosing which hands to play and which hands to fold is fundamental to playing a winning poker game. The best hands to play in Texas Holdem are:

• Big pocket pairs: AA-TT
• Big suited connectors: AK, AQ, AJ, KQ
• Big connectors: AK, AQ, AJ, KQ

These particular combinations of cards have the best chances of winning than other cards, so if you stick to these you will find yourself in more profitable situations after the flop. It is possible to play other combinations of cards successfully, but if you are a beginner player then it is advised to stick with the big cards until you find your feet at the poker table.

Preflop position strategy.

Your position in the hand is an incredibly important variable that you should be aware of in every hand, yet it is something that is all too often forgotten about.

The dynamics of play are slightly different in the preflop betting round, as the small and big blind will be last to act, whereas they will be the first to act on every other betting round. However, the general principles of position will remain the same, as you want to try and play more hands where you have position over your opponents than in positions where you do not.

This means that you should avoid playing too many hands in the blinds or in an early position, as being one of the first to act in each hand can make things very difficult unless you are holding a premium hand. Be very careful when playing in the blinds, and don’t feel as though you have to enter more pots in these positions because you have already committed money to the pot. It is far safer to let marginal hands go rather than to call raises with half a holding and play out of position for the rest of the hand.

Your position can often play a more influential role than the strength of the cards that players are actually holding, so try and keeping the upper hand by combining good position with good cards.

The cards listed above in the starting hands selection section can be played from almost any position, but you should try and tighten up your starting hand selection in the earlier positions. So as a general rule, you can play with a wider range of the top starting hands in later positions than you should in the earlier positions in the hand.

So the top strategy tips on preflop position are:

• Always be aware of your position in a hand
• Try to avoid playing out of position unless you have a strong holding
• You can afford to loosen up your starting hand requirements in later positions
• Don’t feel committed to playing hands when in the blinds

Preflop betting tips.

When the action reaches you before the flop, you will be faced with the decision to either fold, call or raise. If there has been no raise before you, then a call will simply mean matching the size of the big blind, which is also known as ‘limping in’. This is generally not a good play, as if you are entering any pot in Holdem you will want to be making a raise and show aggression.

If you are limping in with a hand, you are either entering the pot with a sub-standard hand or you are playing a premium hand too weakly. So the real question you should ask yourself if you are first to enter the pot before the flop is; “Am I folding or am I raising?”

The majority of the time you should either 'pump it' or 'dump it'. Avoid limping in by simply calling the big blind.

Preflop bet sizing.

If you decide that you are going to enter the pot, you should be looking to make a raise of about 3 or 4 times the size of the big blind. By making a minimum raise you are letting opponents with marginal hands come in cheaply, and you are almost defeating the object of making a preflop raise.

The idea of a preflop raise is to reduce the amount of players who follow you to see a flop, as it is easier to make profitable decisions when there are fewer players in the pot. So make sure to come in with a strong 3 or 4 BB raise, and increase the size of the raise if you find that a lot of players are still calling these raises with marginal hands or if other players have limped in before you.

If there has been a raise before you, you must now consider whether you should fold, call or raise. If you have a poor or marginal starting hand you should look to fold. If you have a good starting hand like the ones mentioned above you should be happy to call and see a flop. If you have one of the top starting hands like AA or KK, should re-raise to help try and get as much money into the pot as possible.

Limping in.

There will be a few cases where limping-in will be an acceptable play. This will normally be when there have been a number of other players limping-in before you, and so you will have better odds to see a flop.

The best hands to limp in with are strong drawing hands such as suited cards with an ace or king, or any connecting cards that can make a straight. You are not looking to make top pair in these limped multi-way pots, as they can often land you in trouble. So aim to play hands that can land you a very strong holding or a strong draw, and then comfortably fold on the flop if neither of these materialize.

Texas Holdem Best Hands Preflop Spread

Top strategy tips for preflop betting:

Texas Hold'em Best Hands To Play

• Don’t be afraid to bet or raise
• Make solid 3 or 4 BB raises when entering an un-opened pot
• Increase the size of your raise if other players have limped or are calling stations
• Avoid limping with mediocre hands
• Only limp if you have a potentially strong hand and others have limped before you

Other preflop strategy tips.

Texas Holdem Best Hands Preflop Games

If you are playing in a shorthanded game such as a 6-max table, you can afford to reduce your starting hand requirements so that you can see more flops. If you stick to the starting hand requirements mentioned above, you would probably find that you are folding too often and missing out on opportunities to win money. So you can afford to play other hands such as AT, KJ, KT, QJ and so on.

When making your decision pre flop, you should also consider the type of players who you are playing against. If you notice that a tight player has made a raise, it is likely that they have a very strong hand, so you should re-evaluate the strength of your cards in this hand. Similarly, if a loose player makes a raise, it is more likely to be profitable to be call with a decent hand as you could well be holding a stronger hand than them.

Texas Holdem Best Hands Preflop Play

It is important to not be afraid about making bets or raises before the flop. It is important to be aggressive in poker, as it is a winning style that all good players adopt. If you are afraid to make bets and raises when you should be, then you will be making unprofitable decisions and you will find it hard to ever win money from the game. To help accustom yourself to being aggressive, you could try dropping down in limits where there is less money at stake, so that you can become comfortable with playing aggressively and notice the advantages of an aggressive style over a weak playing style.

Useful preflop strategy articles:

• Starting Hand Selection (Beginner)
• Position (Beginner)
• The Gap Concept (Intermediate)
• Relative Position (Advanced)

Go back to the thorough hand guide.