For a certain segment of new hold’em players, starting hand charts can be fascinating. Even those with many years of experience who have little need to consult such charts still find them interesting as debate-starters.

Texas Hold’em Poker Starting Hands: The List of Top 20. Starting hands in poker are those cards that players receive when dealing, and they are also called pocket. It is vital to choose the cards with which to continue the game, as the further success of the draw will largely depend on this. TOP 6 MOST CRAZY POKER HANDS OF ALL TIME! Help us to 200K Subscribers - If you are reading this, comment which one was your favourite po.

In hold’em there are 169 different combinations of hands you can be dealt. For those of us who enjoy working with numbers or creating lists with which to organize our lives, there’s something appealing about the idea of ranking all of those hands from 1 to 169, even if we know such a list probably might have only limited value when it comes to actual game play.

In truth, there are actually a lot more possible combinations of hole cards in hold’em — 1,326 of them, in fact. But that total also considers suits as distinct, when in fact before the community cards come the suits are all essentially of equal value.

That is to say, is of the same value as when playing preflop, while and are also of equivalent value. So, too, are the different combinations producing the same pocket pairs all equal before the flop in terms of their relative worth. While there are six different ways to get pocket aces — , , , , , — you're equally happy no matter what suits the cards are.

So we get rid of all of those redundant hands and say that in Texas hold'em there are 169 “non-equivalent” starting hands, breaking them down as follows:

• 13 pocket pairs
• 78 non-paired suited hands (e.g., with two cards of the same suit like or )
• 78 non-paired unsuited hands (e.g., with two cards of different suits like or )

Notice now the non-paired combinations of hole cards neatly divide into equal groups, both of which are six times as large (78) as the smaller group of pocket pairs (13). The total of 169 combinations represents a square, too — 13 x 13 — another curious symmetry when it comes to hold'em hands.

Still, that’s a lot of starting hand combinations — too many for most of us humans to keep in our heads — which is one reason hand ranking charts are appealing and even can be useful, since they help players think about certain two-card combos as “strong” or “average” or “weak” as possible starters.

Setting aside the idea of actually ranking the 169 hands from best to worst, we might think for a moment about other ways of categorizing starting hands in hold’em, using that initial breakdown of hands into pocket pairs, non-paired suited hands, and non-paired unsuited hand as a first step toward coming up with further, smaller groups that are easier to remember.

The 13 pocket pairs we might group as big or “premium” (, , and ), medium ( through ), and small ( through ).

Meanwhile, we might divide each of the other groups into “connectors,” “one-gappers,” and “two-gappers” (and so on), further thinking of them also as “big,” “medium,” and “small” while also keeping separate suited and non-suited combinations.

These categories of non-paired hands are created by thinking about straight-making possibilities (affected by connectedness) and flush-making possibilties (affected by suitedness). There are more ways to make straights with “connectors” — that is, two cards of consecutive rank like — than with two-gappers, three-gappers, and so on. So, too, do you have a better chance of making a flush with suited hole cards than with non-suited hole cards.

Top 20 Hands In Texas Hold'em

Another possible group to create would include “ace hands” — i.e., non-paired hands containing one ace — that can be thought of as “big aces” (e.g., , ), “medium aces” ( down to ), and “small aces” ( to ). Or “king hands,” too. We like keeping these groups in mind, as hands with big cards like an ace or king can connect with flops to make big pairs.

In any case, you can see how these criteria for making categories can help when it comes to building those starting hand charts. And in fact most of those charts feature a similar ordering of hands, with...

• the premium pocket pairs and the big aces (suited and non-suited) up at the top;
• medium and small pocket pairs and big-to-medium suited connectors and one-gappers in the middle;
• and non-paired hands with less potential to make big pairs, straights, or flushes toward the bottom.

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However, there are problems with relying so heavily on starting hand charts that you don’t take into account factors that can make a given hand gain or lose value. Such as the flop. Or the turn. Or the river. Or other factors — including how your opponents are playing their hands — that can quickly affect the value of your starting hands.

After all, as anyone who’s played even a few hands of hold’em well knows, even if is the highest-ranking starting hand and a non-suited ranks as 169th, a couple of deuces among the community cards is all it takes to make the best hand worst and the worst hand best.

Learning the relative value of starting hands is definitely an important first step when it comes to getting started in hold’em. Other aspects of game play such as the importance of position, knowing when and how much to bet or raise, and thinking about opponents’ holdings and playing styles as hands proceed are good to learn, too, and help show how a great starting hand might not be so great five community cards later.

Poker is not blackjack, a game in which similar hand-ranking guides are sometimes used to inform players’ decisions about how to play. In poker you want to be wary about becoming too reliant on those pretty starting hand charts. They can be great for indicating which hands might be worth playing (and which should be thrown away), but troublesome if allowed to outweigh all of the other important factors that arise as a hand plays out.

That said, starting hand charts can be useful, especially for those new to hold’em. They also can be a big help when picking up other games, too, like pot-limit Omaha or the various stud games, if only to get an early idea what hands tend to play better than others.

But for many such charts ultimately are only themselves a way to get started, before the experience of playing helps players more instinctively recognize both hand groupings and how hands tend to compare in terms of profitability.

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Texas Hold’em Hands As The Key Aspect Of The Skill Base For Newbies

According to the rules of the Texas Hold’em hands, each player is dealt two cards face down, which are called starting or pocket cards. The remaining five cards on the flop, turn and river are laid out openly by the dealer and are visible to all participants. However, it is precisely on the two pocket cards that players determine whether it is worth participating in the deal, or is it better to fold the cards. Therefore, it is essential to distinguish between strong pockets and weak pockets, to know from what positions and under what circumstances participants should raise with certain cards, when to call a bet, and when to fold. To make it easier to remember the strength of starting hands in poker, they are all divided into five groups. In total, there are 169 pocket hands.

Texas Hold’em Hands: The List of Rankings

The ranking of hands Texas Hold’em poker is a traditional high hand rating, which is also relevant for Omaha, a 7-card stud, and a 5-card draw. In poker, a hand always consists of five cards, often three cards consist of community cards (board) and two of the cards in hand. Players always take the highest combination, which means, for example, that if they have a pair of two and a field of 5-5-6-6-7, then their pair of two is worthless. Here are ten hand combinations, from lowest to highest.

• A Royal Flush is a combination that is almost impossible to assemble. It consists of cards of the same suit, ascending from tens to ace;
• A Straight Flush is a hand in which cards of the same suit arrange the direct sequence. The starting card can be any. For example, it can be a Straight Flush from two to six or five to nine;
• Four of a Kind is a combination of four cards of the same value. If there are two such Texas Hold’em hands in the game, then the winner is not the one with the higher dignity of the cards, but the one with the higher rankings of the fifth card;
• Full House – is a five-card combination in which there are a pair and a trio. If there are several Full Houses in the game, the winner is the one with the top three in rank. The value of cards in a pair is not taken into account;
• A Flush is an indirect sequence of cards of the same suit. For example, 2,4,6,9, A. If there are several Flush combinations in the game, then the one in which the highest card is of the highest value wins;
• A Straight is a direct sequence of cards of different stripes. If there are two or more Straight, the gain goes to the one whose highest card in the straight is higher in rank;
• A Three is a combination of three cards of the same value. For example, AAA or KKK;
• Two Pairs is a combination of four cards, in which there are two cards of the same value. For example, 22AA or 44KK;
• The highest pair is a combination of two cards of the same rank, for example, 44 or KK;
• The highest card is, as the name implies, an option in which none of the players have a single combination collected per game. In this case, the highest card is an ace.

20 Best Hands Texas Holdem

Distribution in poker begins with a preflop, and, at this stage, it is essential for a player to make an important decision – to enter the auction or not. Experienced players analyze their pocket cards and the actions of the rivals and have already formed a range of hands with which he enters the auction first, after limping or raising the opponent. Beginners, due to ignorance of the strategy and lack of practical experience, often do not know how to choose their hands to enter the auction. For such inexperienced players, there are ready-made starting hand tables with the list of best Texas Hold’em hands.

Texas Hold’em Poker Starting Hands: The List of Top 20

Top 20 Starting Hands In Texas Holdem

Starting hands in poker are those cards that players receive when dealing, and they are also called pocket. It is vital to choose the cards with which to continue the game, as the further success of the draw will largely depend on this. The starting hands’ chart is designed to help the player sort out pocket cards, and to separate good hands from bad ones. The top 20 of best Texas Hold’em hands in Texas Hold’em Poker online includes:

• AA offsuit;
• KK offsuit;
• QQ offsuit;
• AK suited;
• AQ suited;
• JJ offsuit;
• KQ suited;
• AJ suited;
• AK offsuit;
• TT offsuit;
• AT suited;
• KJ suited;
• AQ offsuit;
• 99 offsuit;
• QJ suited;
• KT suited;
• 88 offsuit;
• QT suited;
• A9 suited;
• AJ offsuit.

Many beginner players are interested in what kind of pocket hands they should enter into the distribution. This question has no direct answer. A lot of factors need to be considered to influence the result of hand distribution and hand selection. Therefore, if players can correctly analyze each situation and enter the game only with strong Texas Hold’em poker hands to play, then this will bring income over a long distance.

Top 20 Starting Hands In Texas Holdem

Video – Texas Hold’em Hands Ranking Guide