This is why raising with big starting hands in Texas Holdem is key to their long-term win-rate. Next thing you know, there are 5 people in the pot and your A-K may as well be 7-2 at this point. Many players often trap with big hands like A-K trying to catch someone off guard. As soon as you get more players in the pot, their value will go down drastically, especially your big Ace type hands (AK, AQ etc.). For example, Hands such as big Pairs and big Aces will have a higher expected return versus only 1 or 2 opponents. This is why we change our strategy with certain types of hands. Now play that same A-A against 9 opponents in a hand and the probability of you winning has just dropped down to 31.1%, that means for every three times you play you would lose twice! Playing pocket Aces in a hand against one single opponent (everyone else has folded) gives you an 85.3% probability of winning the hand (pretty good hey!).

Changing Value of Starting Hands – How Many Opponents are you up against?Īn overlooked aspect of starting hands is how their value and strength will fluctuate with the number of players at the table or how many opponents you are facing. However, the line that’s drawn from there can be somewhat of a debate. Poker is a game based on probability and so the statistics are clear cut when it comes to which are the best Texas Holdem starting hands.Įveryone knows that pocket Aces is the strongest starting hand in Texas Holdem and that there aren’t many situations where you are going to fold these regardless of the situation. The perception of what is a strong starting hand in poker will differ from one player to the next, but the numbers don’t lie when it comes to what hands are mathematically better than the rest. In this article we are going to look at the Starting Hands in Texas Holdem, these are the two cards that are dealt to each player sometimes also called the “hole cards”. You have already learnt what final hands beat what in our Poker Hand Ranking article. One of the first skills you should learn in poker is what hands are better than others.īefore you even play a hand, you must know what hands beat what and what consists of a good hand to play.

Poker texas holdem best starting hands