Texas Holdem Poker Starting Hands — Good, Bad, Ugly

You can also group your starting hands into the good, the bad and the ugly. If you are new, this grouping facilites learning and you will make fewer mistakes.

The Good:

These are premium hands and you must not fold preflop!

PAIR OF ACES AA

PAIR OF KINGS KK

AK SUITED

AK NOT SUITED

PAIR OF QUEENS QQ

ACE QUEEN SUITED

KING QUEEN SUITED

PAIR OF JACKS JJ

PAIR OF TENS TT

PAIR OF NINES 99

All of the above are, to a greater or lesser extent, premium hands. You will almost always play these hands. Often you will raise with them.

The Bad :

Now for a group of hands which I hope you ALL will realise are garbage. If you are in the habit of playing any of these, please get rid of that habit.

QUEEN FOUR SUITED OR NOT

JACK FIVE SUITED OR NOT

EIGHT FIVE SUITED OR NOT

ACE FOUR SUITED OR NOT

EIGHT THREE SUITED OR NOT

NINE SEVEN SUITED OR NOT

KING THREE SUITED OR NOT

AND ALL OTHER COMBINATIONS OF SIMILAR NATURE

These are the RAG hands, hands you should simply FOLD every single time. Don’t play them unless it’s free (because you posted a blind) and be prepared to fold even if the
hand improves, unless you get very lucky and make a strong hand like trips.

The Ugly:

These are the really SCARY hands. Hands which look great at first, but will only get you into trouble.

QUEEN TEN (SUITED OR NOT)

KING TEN (SUITED OR NOT)

ACE TEN (SUITED OR NOT)

ACE NINE (SUITED OR NOT)

KING JACK (SUITED OR NOT)

QUEEN NINE (SUITED OR NOT)

TEN JACK (SUITED OR NOT)

These are the hands that look like premium cards. However, more often than not, they will get you into trouble, let you down at the last moment and cause you to lose all your cash.

Handling these “trappy” hands the correct way will save you a small fortune.

Knowing when and when not to fold, bet, call, raise, check or bluff during a Hold’em game takes experience, and the only way you are going to gain that is to practice and play often. It takes about 100,000 bets to get sufficient experience. If you are starting out, playing your first two cards correctly is of utmost importance because you do not want to learn bad habits. You can group your starting hands into group 1 to group 8 as described in my previous post or you can group them into “the good, the bad and the ugly”.

Pay special attention to the way you play the ugly cards. However, knowing how to minimize your losses and maximize your winnings is all about knowing the right time to fold, bet, call, raise, check or bluff.

For example, if you want to cut your losses, fold during the preflop if you do not have a strong starting hand. Conversely, if you have premium starting hand, the longer you stay in the game and keep raising, the more opportunity you have to get the other players to keep adding money to the pot, thus maximizing your potential victory. The above folding tip sounds obvious and easy, but the truth is, folding is sometimes difficult for players, especially for those players who have little patience and a lot of pride. To help you decide when to fold ask yourself these questions:

1. Do I currently have one of the premium hands according to the number of players in the game?
2. Do I have enough faith in my hand to take on the other players?
3. Do I have the odds in the current wager?

You need to keep asking these questions because they are part of your game plan. You have to keep practising until asking such questions become second nature to you. Although you’ll never know the exact answers to these questions, the whole point of asking them is because systematic play always beat random play. If you discover leakage in your play, you can always improve on your system.

Furthermore, there are technically two particular rounds in Hold’em where folding needs to be considered seriously, the Preflop and the Turn. The preflop gives you an indication of your potential victory with your starting hand, so if it doesn’t look good, you can fold quickly out of the game and cut your losses early. The turn, on the other hand, is your last chance to fold before you put your final chips in the pot for the river. Thus, if you reach the turn and you lose confidence in your hand, you can still cut your losses by folding before the showdown.

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