With 169 different starting hand combinations for Texas Hold’em it’s not that hard to sort out the good hands from the bad. This is important because you want to choose hands that will provide the most value in the long run.
Playing bad hands like 7-2 for example will only result in you loosing money. You may get lucky with your 7-2 occasionally and hit trips on the flop but in the long run that hand will loose you more money than it will win. Remember its long term results that we are interested in not short term results. Playing hands like AA, KK, QQ, AKs etc will win more often than they loose which means they will make us a nice profit in the long run.
Your Position At The Table
Position is one the most important parts of poker strategy. At any level of poker you must always be aware of your position and the position your opponents are in. The diagram below indicates different positions at the table.
If you are the first to act at the table then you have a disadvantage as everyone else will get to act after you. So in early positions you should be folding most hands and only be play premium hands such as AA, KK, QQ, AK etc.
Acting first in a hand means that you will have little or no information on your opponents which makes things very difficult. If you start playing weak and mediocre hands from early positions then you are going to get in some tough spots and loose money in the long run. By narrowing your hands down to the best selection you will be more likely to win more in the long run.
Texas Hold’em involves a lot of folding if you are going to take it seriously so try to keep your concentration and don’t be tempted t play rubbish hands just because you haven’t played a hand in a while. Patience is key to success in poker.
Starting Hand Charts
The starting hands charts below will give you a good guide for which starting hands to play pre-flop. If you’re new to online poker then you could just start by playing the hands in green. Then once you are more comfortable and understand the game better you could move onto the hands in yellow and so on.
These charts are meant as a guide and you should take other things into account when using it. For example if you are last to act and there has been a raise and reraise in front of you then you wouldn’t play 22 even though it says play in late position on the chart. Use your own judgement together with the chart as a guide and you will be on your way to winning.
