Texas hold 'em starting hands
In the poker game of Texas hold 'em, a starting hand consists of two hole cards, which belong solely to the player and remain hidden from the other players. Five community cards are also dealt into play. Betting begins before any of the community cards are exposed, and continues throughout the hand. The player's "playing hand", which will be compared against that of each competing player, is the best 5-card poker hand available from his two hole cards and the five community cards. Unless otherwise specified, here the term hand applies to the player's two hole cards, or starting hand.
Essentials
There are 1326 distinct possible combinations of two hole cards from a standard 52-card deck in hold 'em, but since suits have no relative value in this poker variant, many of these hands are identical in value before the flop. For example, and are identical in value, because each is a hand consisting of an ace and a jack of the same suit.Therefore, there are 169 non-equivalent starting hands in hold 'em, which is the sum total of : 13 pocket pairs, 13 × 12 / 2 = 78 suited hands and 78 unsuited hands.
These 169 hands are not equally likely. Hold 'em hands are sometimes classified as having one of three "shapes":
- Pairs,, which consist of two cards of the same rank. One hand in 17 will be a pair, each occurring with individual probability 1/221.
- Suited hands, which contain two cards of the same suit. 23.5% of all starting hands are suited.
Probability of second hand suit matching the first:
There are 13 cards per suit, and one is in your hand leaving 12 remaining of the 51 cards remaining in the deck. 12/51=.2353 or 23.5%
- Offsuit hands, which contain two cards of a different suit and rank. 70.6% of all hands are offsuit hands
Other offsuit hands = 936
It is typical to abbreviate suited hands in hold 'em by affixing an "s" to the hand, as well as to abbreviate non-suited hands with an "o". That is,
Limit hand rankings
Some notable theorists and players have created systems to rank the value of starting hands in limit Texas hold'em. These rankings do not apply to no limit play.Sklansky hand groups
and Mason Malmuth assigned in 1999 each hand to a group, and proposed all hands in the group could normally be played similarly. Stronger starting hands are identified by a lower number. Hands without a number are the weakest starting hands. As a general rule, books on Texas hold'em present hand strengths starting with the assumption of a nine or ten person table. The table below illustrates the concept:Chen formula
The "Chen Formula" is a way to compute the "power ratings" of starting hands that was originally developed by Bill Chen.;Highest Card
;Pairs
;Suited
;Closeness
Phil Hellmuth's: "Play Poker Like the Pros"
's "Play Poker Like the Pros" book published in 2003.| Tier | Hands | Category |
| 1 | AA, KK, AKs, QQ, AK | Top 12 Hands |
| 2 | JJ, TT, 99 | Top 12 Hands |
| 3 | 88, 77, AQs, AQ | Top 12 Hands |
| 4 | 66, 55, 44, 33, 22, AJs, ATs, A9s, A8s | Majority Play Hands |
| 5 | A7s, A6s, A5s, A4s, A3s, A2s, KQs, KQ | Majority Play Hands |
| 6 | QJs, JTs, T9s, 98s, 87s, 76s, 65s | Suited Connectors |
Statistics based on real online play
Statistics based on real play with their associated actual value in real bets.| Tier | Hands | Expected Value |
| 1 | AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AKs | 2.32 - 0.78 |
| 2 | AQs, TT, AK, AJs, KQs, 99 | 0.59 - 0.38 |
| 3 | ATs, AQ, KJs, 88, KTs, QJs | 0.32 - 0.20 |
| 4 | A9s, AJ, QTs, KQ, 77, JTs | 0.19 - 0.15 |
| 5 | A8s, K9s, AT, A5s, A7s | 0.10 - 0.08 |
| 6 | KJ, 66, T9s, A4s, Q9s | 0.08 - 0.05 |
| 7 | J9s, QJ, A6s, 55, A3s, K8s, KT | 0.04 - 0.01 |
| 8 | 98s, T8s, K7s, A2s | 0.00 |
| 9 | 87s, QT, Q8s, 44, A9, J8s, 76s, JT | 0.02 - 0.03 |