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Texas Holdem Starting Hand Charts

Thursday, February 17th, 2011 by Phil

I don’t use Texas holdem starting hand charts. It’s not that I have some kind of moral objection to using such a chart. And I’m not too proud to need a little bit of help. I’m just not able to memorize information in a chart form. I need a different mnemonic structure to help me remember which starting hands are good and/or bad.

I’m better at remembering the relative strength of starting poker hands in Texas hold’em by putting them into categories. And since you’re only dealing with two cards in the hole in Texas holdem, remembering which categories of starting hands are which is pretty easy. If you can memorize a poker hand rankings order, which you MUST do if you’re going to play poker seriously, then you can remember which starting hands are strong, medium, and weak in Texas holdem.

You can categorize Texas hold’em starting hands in multiple ways, but here’s how I categorize them:

• Pocket pairs
• Suited connectors
• Suited connectors with gaps
• Big unsuited cards
• Suited Aces

Pocket Pairs

The pocket pair is an easy category to remember. And understanding which pocket pairs are better than which other pocket pairs is easy too–they’re ranked numerically already:

• AA
• KK
• QQ
• JJ
• TT
• 99
• 88
• 77
• 66
• 55
• 44
• 33
• 22

You don’t need a chart to tell you that any of those are playable at least some of the time. And you don’t need a chart to tell you that face cards are more valuable than numbered cards, and that low cards are riskier than high cards.

As it turns out, AA and KK are the two strongest starting hands you could have in a Texas holdem game, and it almost always makes sense to raise with them preflop. And they usually play pretty well on a flop.

On the other hand, 22, 33, and 44 are risky hands. If you can get into a pot cheap with them, and stay in the hand cheap with them if you hit a set on the flop, then they’re playable. But they’re not strong hands, and that’s pretty obvious to anyone with half a brain.

Suited Connectors

The other easy-to-remember starting hand combination is the suited connector. These starting hands are adjacent in rank and of the same suit. The following hands are suited connectors in order of strength:

• AKs
• KQs
• QJs
• JTs
• T9s
• 98s
• 87s
• 76s
• 65s
• 54s
• 43s
• 32s

AKs stands for Ace king suited, and it’s the strongest non-paired starting hand you could hope for. Not only do you have the opportunity to hit top pair on the flop, but if you hit a flush, you’ll automatically have the nuts.

But with suited connectors, the hand values start dropping almost immediately. KQs stands for king queen suited, and it’s a playable hand. But it’s not nearly as strong as a pair of queens. It’s as good as a pair of jacks, almost, because you have extra room on either side to make straights with, and the hand has a lot of potential. But it can be tricky if someone has an ace. You’re in danger of hitting the second best flush, which can be a big, painful pot to lose.

On the lower end, suited connectors aren’t playable at all. Anything lower than 87s is little better than trash. You have lots of opportunities with those cards to make second best hands, and the second best hand is the worst hand you can have in holdem. The second best hand almost guarantees that you’ll lose money.

Connected cards that aren’t suited usually aren’t playable either.

Suited Connectors with Gaps

Some people play suited connectors with gaps too. In other words, they’re ALMOST connected, but not really. Here is a list of one-gapped suited connectors. These are always pretty speculative hands, and their value goes down a LOT as they get lower in rank:

• AQs
• KJs
• QTs
• J9s
• T8s
• 97s
• 86s
• 75s
• 64s
• 53s

T8s is about as low as I’m usually willing to play, and I want to be able to get into the flop cheap from late position with a lot of money in the pot. I also want to hit a really good flop or I’m outta there.

Big Cards That Aren’t Suited

AK and AQ unsuited are playable just because of their high pair and high pair high kicker potential. I know loose players who will play AJ offsuit and even lower, but I’m a little bit tigher than that.

Suited Aces

Any suited ace has the potential to make  a flush, so they can be playable hands, but you want to be in position before you play them. You also want to be able to get in cheap and hit a strong flop.

Why would you need a Texas holdem starting hand chart to remember that?