Starting Hands in Texas Hold'em Poker

A player's starting hand when playing Texas Hold'em is essential to the game plan of any serious poker player. A pressured start is a sign of inexperience and generally a sign of a poor hand. A player's starting hand when playing Texas Hold'em is a guideline to be followed in preference to the advice given in other poker books and online playing guides.

In the book and guide leading the majority of the poker professionals consider pocket Aces in the initial round of betting to be the best hand. This is the best starting hand as it is the weakest and least likely to be beaten. As the pre-flop raiser in a round of betting, you are seeking to attract the limited destruction of low pocket pairs such as 77 down to 89. You can re-raise if you feel you may be facing heavy early raises with your top pair. In case someone holds firmly to their decision and you hear a heavy clinking of chips on the table as they have made a strong hand.

It is unwise to make your decision as the blinds are simply too high in the initial round. Enter into the game slowly and carefully using your mid-point to engage in steady succession of low level blind raises in the beginning part of the game. Sill have an idea of the amount of chips others hold in their hands on the table.

During the middle part of the game, meaning the 4th card and onwards, you should only be playing with stronger hands. Whether you hold 40 or 55 or 60 chips does not matter at this point. If you have to bet, raise! If you are re-raised, fold.

When you reach the river, you should be using a variation of the Hold'em starting hand strategy, as described above. You should be holding at least one pair or two high cards. If your starting hand is dominated by lower pairs, you should throw them away. Hence the rule of thumb is the stronger your hand, the better your chances of winning.

But first things first, you need to understand which cards are the best in this hand. Ace is the highest card in the line and is called the kicker. One should know that only two other cards, called the QQdewa cards can be used to complete a hand. These cards are dealt face up and can be used by all the players to make up their hands.

The Flush

This hand is composed of cards of the same suit. However, it is not an easy hand to get. You need to have five cards of the same suit in order to have a flush. The best way to get a flush is to have three cards of the same suit in the beginning and the same suit in the river.

Three of a Kind

This hand has three cards of the same rank and two other cards. Such kind of hands are easier to get and is a good hand to have in any poker game. The player with three Aces has three cards of the same rank. An example of this would be three Aces combined with two Kings.

Two Pair

Basically, this hand has two pairs of cards and one other card. The example is two pairs of threes and two other cards. If there are two players with this hand, the player with the highest pair wins. If both the players have the same pairs, the player with the highest cards wins.

Pair

This hand has two cards of the same rank and three other cards. Such cards should preferably be cards that rotation in their rank. For an example, two pairs of tens and two other cards. If the player has this hand, he is an easy winner as both the opponents are likely to have the same hand except for the highest card in the rotation.

High Card

This hand has no pairs and no more than two other cards. Such cards should be cards that are high in the rotation. The personal card of the player is the highest card in comparison to the others. If there is a tie for the highest card, the next highest card is considered.