Top Holdem Hands

• Top 20 Hold'em Hands
• Top Holdem Hands
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• Top Poker Hands
• Top Texas Holdem Hands

Jul 24, 2019 Studying this baseline chart is a necessity for developing a winning strategy in poker.If you’re opening up too many hands, even if it’s slightly –EV to open with preflop, your mistakes throughout the hand are going to compound - potentially putting you in even bigger –EV spots, if you play sub-optimally post-flop. On top of that you may also have to play out of position post-flop if you are called. Our Texas Hold'em Starting Hands guide is a great follow up to this article and has more specific. Texas Holdem – Top 10% Starting Hands. In Texas Hold’em, there are 169 unique combinations of preflop starting hands you can be dealt. This number is arrived at by grouping holdings into pairs, suited cards and offsuit cards, and considering that preflop specific suits (e.g. Hearts vs diamonds) don’t yet have value. (If taking into account suits, the number of hole card combinations. NL Hold’em Starting Hand Charts. One aspect of the game of No-Limit Hold’em that causes beginning players much grief is deciding which hands to play and which hands to dump. NL Hold’em is much more difficult than Limit Hold’em because the value of a hand depends on so many factors other than just the cards in your hand.

NL Hold’em Starting Hand Charts

One aspect of the game of No-Limit Hold’em that causes beginning players much grief is deciding which hands to play and which hands to dump. NL Hold’em is much more difficult than Limit Hold’em because the value of a hand depends on so many factors other than just the cards in your hand. Despite this difficulty, our coaches believe that following some general guidelines and adjusting from these is a better solution than having no guidelines at all. Given that well over half of your profitability in NL Hold’em is based on hand selection alone, we have developed these charts to help you better determine whether to play or fold.

There are no perfect No-Limit starting hand charts. That is because there are many factors that affect your decision, and charts cannot account for all of them. Some of these include:

1. The size of your opponent's stacks.
2. How loose or tight, passive or aggressive, your opponents are.
3. Where these opponents are located at the table – for example, does an aggressive player still have to act after you?
4. Your image at the table – for example, how tight or tricky you are perceived.

That being said, these charts will serve you well in most typical low-stakes No-Limit cash games, such as games with blinds of $1/$2, and home games. These games typically have several loose players at the table, and good opportunities for winning big pots with suited connectors and pocket pairs. With practice, you will be able to be a consistently winning player with these charts as a starting point. As you improve, you'll find yourself making adjustments to these charts based on the factors listed above, and more.

AGAIN: These charts are a good starting point for beginners. Specifically, Chart #1 recommends a significant amount of limping. This is great in loose, passive games but less often seen in tougher games. You’ll find other training material on Advanced Poker Training that may recommend a more aggressive approach for more experienced players.

Note: It would be a serious mistake to apply these hand charts before reading the Frequent Asked Questions first.

CHART #1 ‐ LOOSE, PASSIVE GAME (OFTEN 4-5 LIMPERS PER HAND)
NO ONE HAS RAISED YET

• Raise Always
• Call from Early Position, otherwise raise
• Call always
• Call from Middle or Late Position if the conditions are right (see Frequently Asked Questions)

CHART #2 ‐ TIGHTER GAME (FEWER LIMPERS) OR MORE AGGRESSIVE GAME
NO ONE HAS RAISED YET

• Raise Always
• Call from Early Position, otherwise raise
• Call (or Raise) from Middle or Late Position if the conditions are right (see Frequently Asked Questions)

CHART #3 ‐ THERE HAS BEEN A SINGLE RAISE
(3‐5 TIMES THE BIG BLIND) BEFORE YOU

• Re‐Raise Always
• Call from Early Position, otherwise re‐raise
• Call always
• Call from Middle or Late Position if the conditions are right (see Frequently Asked Questions)

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

For the hands in yellow, what do you mean when you say to play these hands if the conditions are right? The hands in yellow are speculative hands. They should always be folded from Early Position. From other positions, they can be profitable given the right conditions. Some of the questions to ask yourself:

1. Are there other players who have called so far (the more, the better)?
2. Are the players who have called playing poorly after the flop? Will they pay me off if I hit something?
3. Is there an aggressive player still to act behind me (you might get raised and have to fold)?
4. If there has been a raise and no other callers, what chance do I have of using my position after the flop to win the hand even if I don't improve (Chart #3 only)?

Why does Chart #2 say to sometimes raise with the hands in yellow, but Chart #1 does not? We have different goals in mind. Using Chart #1, we want to call to encourage additional players to enter the pot. These hands will be immensely profitable when our loose, passive opponents enter the hand, and get trapped when we flop a set, or make a well-disguised straight. When using Chart #2, however, we want to size up the opponents still to act. If they are tight, we can raise. Sometimes, we'll pick up the blinds. Other times, our pre-flop aggression will allow us to take down the pot on the flop.

What's the difference between AKs and AKo? AKs means an Ace and King of the same suit. AKo means an Ace and King of different suits.

What are early, middle, and late position? Early Position is generally the first 2 (in a nine player game) or 3 (in a ten player game) positions after the blinds. Late Position is the “cutoff” position (to the right of the dealer), and dealer button positions. Middle Position is everything in between.

How much should I raise? As a general rule, raise 3 to 4 times the big blind, plus 1 extra big blind for every player who has called before you. So if there are 2 callers already, raise between 5 and 6 times the big blind.

What if someone raises after I call? Whether you call the raise depends on how much money the raiser has for you to win, how many other players are involved, and what type of hand you have. As a general rule, if you have a pocket pair, lean towards calling. If there are a lot of other players (and therefore a big pot), lean towards calling. In general, fold suited connectors from early position. Fold hands like KQ that don't play well against a raiser.

How do I play from the blinds? From the small blind, play the same hands you would play from late position, plus a few more. But don't call with junk hands like T5o, just because it is “cheap”. From the big blind, if there is a raise to you, play like you would if you had already called from early position.

The chart says to fold KQo to a raise. Really? Yes, this hand performs very poorly against typical raising hands. Against AK, AQ, AA, KK, QQ, you are a big underdog. Other typical raising hands like JJ, TT, 99, AJs, are slightly ahead of you as well. The only time you might call or re-raise is from late position, if the opener was in middle or late position, indicating they might have a wider range of hands.

I was told to fold AJo from Early Position, why do you say to call with it? Folding AJo is not a bad idea in many games. We included it because, at low stakes tables (even tight or aggressive ones), the players are often playing badly enough after the flop that it can be profitable. We used data from millions of hands of low-limit poker to analyze this. The same could be said for KQo, ATs, and KJs – you can make a small profit in the long run at most low-stakes games, but folding would be perfectly acceptable from early position.

Can I use these charts in a NL Hold'em tournament? The charts would be best applicable to the early stages of a NL tournament, when everyone has a deep stack. In the middle and later stages, they should not be used.

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Hand Rank > FAQ : Quiz

Learning the rank of hands in Texas Hold'em is just as important as learning the rules themselves. Be sure to know what beats what, so you won't be surprised the next time that flush beats your straight. Check out the hand rank FAQ to help answer questions you might have about the ranking of hands in Texas Hold'em.

The hands are in order from top to bottom, decreasing in value as you move down.

Rank of hands.

#1 Royal flush.

An ace-high straight flush. It's just a straight flush really, but it's made with the 5 highest value cards.

A royal flush is the absolute best possible hand in the game of Texas Hold'em. You will rarely (if ever) see this hand.

#2 Straight flush.

Top 20 Hold'em Hands

5 cards of the same suit in sequential order. This is essentially the best hand in the game, only coming second to it's bigger brother; the royal flush.

#3 Four of a kind.

Four cards of the same value. Virtually a guaranteed winner.

Unfortunately you rarely really win as much money with it as you would like, as it's unlikely that other players in the pot will make a hand that they're happy to call lots of bets and raises with. Still, better than nothing!

#4 Full house.

Three of one and two of another. Or you could think of it as 3-of-a-kind + 2-pair. Also known as a 'boat'.

Top Holdem Hands

This is the most common out of the 'big hands' you will see in Texas Hold'em. You can win a nice chunk of money if another player ends up making a weaker hand like a flush or a straight.

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If you think your opponent has a weaker full house than you, take advantage of Zeebo's theorem.

#5 Flush

Five cards of the same suit.

As long as there are no pairs on the board (e.g. 448JK or 27TAA), this will be the strongest type of hand anyone can make.

Beginner players love to chase flushes, and it usually results in losing money. Make sure you learn about pot odds before you chase your next flush.

Tip: If you're playing online, use the four colour deck feature. This turns the club cards green () and the diamonds blue (). So less chance of mistaking 4 diamonds and 1 heart as a flush.

#6 Straight.

Top Poker Hands

Five cards in sequence.

This hand is beaten by a flush, so don't make the rookie mistake of over-valuing the straight when there are a number of cards of the same suit on the board. It is actually harder to make a flush than a straight.

#7 Three of a kind.

3 cards of the same value.

A 'set' is when you have 3 of a kind whilst holding a pocket pair. A set tends to be one of the most profitable hands in Texas Hold'em. It's handy to know the difference between sets and trips.

#8 Two pair.

Top Texas Holdem Hands

Two pairs of course.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that this hand is stronger than 3 of a kind. It's actually easier to pick up two-pair than it is to get 3 of a kind.

#9 Pair.

Two cards of the same value. Almost like 'two of a kind' really.

A very common hand that can actually win a fair number of pots for you. Just be careful not to go overboard with this hand. The higher the pair the better.

#10 High card.

Just the highest value card.

If two players have the same value high card, you look at the next highest card (and so on) to find the winner.

This is not really much of a hand, but occasionally the winner of the hand will be decided on who holds the card of highest value. Don't expect to win any big pots with this one. It's usually there to determine the winner as a last resort.

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