Poker Starting Hands: Which Hands to Play in Texas Hold’em and Why

What starting hands are: 169 hands and 1,326 combos

In Texas Hold’em every player gets two hole cards. From a 52-card deck there are 52 × 51 ÷ 2 = 1,326 possible two-card combinations. But for strategy the exact suits rarely matter — A♠ K♠ plays exactly like A♥ K♥. Grouping combos by rank and by “same suit or not” leaves 169 distinct starting hands.

The combo counts matter later: a pair can be dealt only 6 ways, a suited hand 4 ways, an offsuit hand 12 ways. That’s why “AK” (16 combos) is far more common in an opponent’s range than “AA” (6 combos). The probabilities that follow from it:

How to read hand notation: AKs, AKo, 77, T9s

Players, charts and solvers all write starting hands the same short way. Learn it once and every range chart becomes readable.

More slang like “broadway”, “connector” or “gapper” is in our poker terms glossary.

Starting hand groups: from premium to trash

Memorising 169 hands one by one is unnecessary. It is enough to know which group a hand belongs to — each group has its own plan.

The top 10 starting hands in Texas Hold’em

A common ordering of the strongest hands. Exact order differs a little between sources (it depends on how many players see the flop), but the list itself is almost universal.

The full order of made hands (pair, two pair, straight…) is in poker hand rankings; this article is about the two cards you start with.

Position: which hands to open from each seat

The later you act, the more you know: players behind you have fewer chances to wake up with a big hand, and after the flop you see what they do before deciding. That’s why the same hand is a fold in early position and a clear raise on the button.

A simpler chart for complete beginners is in our Texas Hold’em guide, and the order of learning — rules, position, pot odds — in how to learn poker.

Facing a raise: 3-bet, call or fold

Opening ranges are for when the pot is unopened. When someone has already raised, your range must get much tighter: you are now up against a real hand, not two random cards.

• Who raised matters. A UTG raise means a strong range; a button raise can be very wide. Defend more against late positions.
• Domination is the main danger. AJ against a raiser’s AQ or AK wins only about a quarter of the time. That’s why “a good ace” is often a fold facing a raise.
• Some 3-bets are bluffs. Strong players also re-raise with hands like A5s–A4s: they block aces and play well when called.
• Facing a 3-bet, continue mainly with QQ+, AK and some strong calls (JJ, TT, AQs) — folding most of your opening range is normal.

Short stack: push or fold

With roughly 10–15 big blinds or less, the normal open-call-fold game breaks down: there isn’t enough room to raise and fold. Tournament players switch to push/fold — either all-in or fold. Ranges get much wider than opening ranges: on the button with 10 BB a pushing range is usually far above 45% of hands, because winning the blinds without a fight is already a big gain.

Exact push and call ranges by stack and position are in our push/fold charts. The all-in-or-fold format built around this idea is explained in All-in or Fold poker.

Suited and connected hands: how much they really add

Beginners overrate suited cards. Being suited adds only about 2–3% equity preflop compared with the offsuit version of the same hand. With suited hole cards you flop a flush only about 0.8% of the time, flop a flush draw about 11% of the time and finish with a flush by the river about 6.4% of the time.

Connectedness matters for the same reason: hands like 98 or JT can make many straights, while K3 or Q4 almost never do. A hand that is both suited and connected has the most ways to win a big pot — but it still wins the most when it’s cheap to see the flop.

Pocket pairs and set mining

A small pocket pair rarely wins a big pot unimproved. Its main hope is a set (three of a kind using the pair). A pocket pair flops a set or better about 11.8% of the time — 1 in 8.5 — and reaches a set by the river about 19% of the time.

Calling a raise “to hit a set” is called set mining. It pays only if you can win enough when you hit. A common rule of thumb is that the effective stack — the smaller of yours and the raiser’s — should be at least 15–20 times the amount you call. With shallow stacks, small pairs lose much of their value.

1. 1
   Someone raises to 3 BB, effective stacks are 100 BB — that is about 33 times the call, deep enough to set-mine.
2. 2
   You call with 55 and see the flop.
3. 3
   No set (about 7 times out of 8): you usually fold to a bet unless the board is very low.
4. 4
   Set: you play for stacks, because a single set now pays for many missed flops.

Preflop equity: classic matchups

Equity is your share of the pot if all the cards were dealt out. These all-in preflop numbers are worth knowing by heart (rounded, ties split). In each row the first two cards are the first hand, the dimmed cards are the opponent’s.

Check any matchup — hand against hand or against a range — in our equity calculator.

Famous starting hand nicknames

Strictly by equity against one random hand, 32o is a hair weaker than 72o. But 72o is called the worst hand because it can’t make a straight with both cards and plays worst multiway.

Common beginner mistakes with starting hands

• What costs beginners the most
• Playing too many hands — especially offsuit hands like K8o, Q7o, J5o.
• Ignoring position: opening the same hands under the gun as on the button.
• Calling raises with dominated hands: AJo, KJo, QJo against an early-position open.
• Limping (just calling the big blind) instead of raising or folding.
• Playing any two suited cards “because they’re suited”.
• Set mining with short stacks, where hitting the set doesn’t pay enough.
• Folding KK or QQ preflop out of fear, or refusing to fold JJ and AQ to heavy action.

• A simple preflop checklist
• Which seat am I in, and has anyone raised?
• Which group is my hand in — and is it strong enough for this seat?
• How deep are the stacks: normal game, set-mining room or push/fold?
• Raise or fold first; call only with a clear reason.

Preflop is only the start: how to turn good starting decisions into a profit is covered in how to win at poker, and the basics of the game in poker rules.

Where to practise starting hands

The fastest way to make starting hands automatic is volume at small stakes: open the right ranges, review the hands you lost and check spots in the calculator. Club apps such as ClubGG, PPPoker and PokerBros run 6-max Hold’em tables at low stakes. Here are top ClubGG clubs from our catalog, ranked by player reviews — see all in the ClubGG catalog.

RatePokerClub catalogTop ClubGG clubs by player reviews

All clubs

#1MOJO 24.51 reviewRakeback 50%Union: Massive Poker UnionOpen club #2MOJO 1No reviews yetRakeback 50%Union: AllinUnionOpen club #3Mr Pink PantherNo reviews yetRakeback 40%Open club #4ZerakeNo reviews yetRakeback Zero RakeOpen club #5POKER VIBE UANo reviews yetRakeback 40%Open club

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