Starting Hand Selection In Texas Hold'em Poker

Starting Hand Selection In Texas Hold'em Poker

Choosing weather or not to play a hand in texas hold'em is arguably the most important choice you make in each hand. Their are a few factors that are involved when making this choice, and you would be wise to carefully consider each hand.

The first factor to consider is the hole cards your dealt. Good hole cards are not a guarantee that you will win. In texas hold'em it is the five card poker hand you make. Too often players think because they have a good starting hand they are pretty much guaranteed to win. A good starting hand is exactly that. A good start. So what are good hole cards? I would say three distinctive types of hands are good enough to consider from most any position and circumstance. These types are pocket pairs, connectors, and suited connectors. Now of course you can play other hands here and there, but I suggest that you stick to these stronger starting hands. This makes it much easier to know how you should play the hand after the flop.

By limiting your starting hands you will minimize your losses and maximize your gains. Also if you play lower ranked hands to the flop it makes for a more difficult decision. It is much harder to know if you are ahead or behind in the hand. Lets look at two examples to illustrate what I mean. Lets say you choose to go ahead and limp in with a Th-Jc(Ten of hearts-Jack of clubs). The flop comes out 6h-4s-Js. Now you have top pair with the jacks, but you have only a ten for a kicker. Also with two spades on the flop it makes a flush draw for anyone with two spades in the pocket, or even possibly if they have one high spade. This is very easily beat with a wide variety of hands your opponents may have. Now for the second example lets say you choose to play a 8d-9d. The flop comes out 10d-4d-7s. You have made now pair, but you do now have an open-ended straight draw; as well as, a diamond flush draw. You can see that in the first example all though you made one of the cards you where drawing at you still where not in a very good position; however, in the second example by playing a statistically more advantaged starting hand you have draws at much stronger hands. In the second example you don't have a hand after the flop, but you do have a statistical advantage over many hands that would have been made with that flop. What I mean by this is if someone made a pair, two pair, or even three of a kind on the flop either of your two draws would beat it.

The relative position you will be playing in the hand is another very important factor to consider. Being in a late position is usually the most advantageous. When in late position you get to have the final say, in a manner of speaking, each betting round. Also you get to see what everyone else does before having to make a decision as to what you will do.

Another important point to look at is knowing what your looking for in a flop, or even what your looking for not to come up often times. For example if you have a pocket pair of queens then you really don't want to see an ace or a king on the flop. Now anything can and will happen, but my point is that if you play hands that even when improved on by the flop most likely will still not be very strong then you will be in situations where it is likely you will either take down small pots or lose to a stronger hand. The key to playing texas hold'em poker is not betting when you have made your hand. If you play like this then you will get bullied out of hands, and the ones you make your hands on other players will fold knowing your playing a made hand. The key is betting on the likely hood of making a hand, or betting because you feel you are ahead in the hand and would be better off taking down the pot now rather than playing it out to extract more money.

When playing texas hold'em you should always keep in mind is the present situation. This can be observations you made about players at your table thus far, the size of your chip stack in relationship to the blinds and your opponents stack size, and a myriad of other factors. Also if your playing in a poker tournament you should keep in mind the stage your in. If the tournament just started, or if its in its later stages. Often times in the later stages of tournament play it can be better to fold a hand and let some people go out to increase your finishing position. These types of factors can effect the way a hand should be played, and should never be understated. Most times it is the situation first that should be considered before even looking at your cards.

Now there are always exceptions to every rule and in texas hold'em poker there is more grey area than the black and white combined, but if you understand the fundamentals and philosophies behind the game you will realize it is not just poker hands. It is psychology, sociology, mathematics, and even some acting. By increasing your understanding of how these factor in to the game of hold'em, and poker in general, each hand you play you will increase your skill level. You will know what to look for and you will start to see how the way people bet can tell you what is likely to be in their hand.

Lastly I would like to encourage you not to be lured into playing mediocre hands. This may not seem like an important point to mention, but I see to many good poker players get frustrated by people who call a great number of hands and seem to get lucky and catch great cards every time. If you have played texas hold'em poker any amount of time you have seen players like this. It is easy to think "maybe if I go ahead and just limp in with my 6-8 off suit maybe I will hit two pair or even trips on the flop. Then I will be able to extract a great deal of money because no one will put me on a hand like that." Sometimes this does work. If players at your table aren't playing that aggressively here and there it is a good idea to mix up your play with some less stellar hands, but the key here is "less is more". Play these types of hands too often and your opponents will take advantage of it. The "lucky" players will fall by the wayside long before reaching the pay-out structure and you don't want to be taken down with them. By playing the strong starting poker hands you will be able to take advantage of these types of players. The hands these types of players will be playing and betting on will often be dominated by the three types of hands I mentioned in the beginning. It takes discipline to watch lucky players triple their chip stack by playing recklessly and not start calling more hands than you should. By being patient and playing the types of hands I have suggested it will only be a matter of time before you capitalize on your opponents overly aggressive game play.

For a more in depth examination of hold'em strategies, statistics, tips and much more visit the link below.

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