I aint sure if its any good but I found this -
The starting hands in Texas Holdem are divided into groups with different properties. The playabilty of all the starting hands is completely depending on your position and the playing conditions at the poker table. We will have a look at how the different groups should be played in the chapters “The play before the flop”, "Early Position", "Middle Position" and "late position".
Notations
Pair – Two cards with the same value. Thes are normally divided into three different groups: High pairs: (AA-JJ), middle pairs (TT-77) and low pairs (66 and lower). You can often take the pot without having to improve your hand with the flop and the next cards. In the first place you want to play your high pairs against just a few players as you risk too much when more players are involved in the pot. A pair is not a particularly godd “drawing hand” (a hand which is improved when more cards are handed out) even though three of a kind, full house and four of a kind is within reach. Low pairs are ,in opposite to high pairs, only worth using when you want to see the flop when a sufficient number of players has put money into the pot. This is the case as a favourable flop which gives you three of a kind or better often is the only thing which can make you win with a low pair as a starting hand. A big pot is also necessary to give you correct odds in order to play a low pair. This means that you, when you win a game with three of a kind ( for instance 666) this in the long run should pay for the times you miss the flop with your low pairs. The odds have made you join the betting round. A high pair is of course always better than a low pair – and you play them differently.
Suit (s) – Two cards of the same suit are
suited. Suited cards makes it easier for you to make a flush. As you probably already has understood the best thing is to have an ace at the top if you get this chance. It is good if there are many players in the pot with this kind of a starting hand as they create very strong hands if the cards are the right ones, i.e. they should be strong enough to withstand the hands of your opponents. Playing low suited cards against just one or two players is not as favourable as what you gain when making a correct move will not pay for the erroneous moves you make with these. Suited is abbreviated with the letter “s”, for instance J8s for J and 8 of the same suit. High suited cards are of course always good thanks to the possibility of in the first place getting high pairs and/or perhaps a flush. If these cards at the same time are “
connectors” (this is explained below) the chances to get a straight also are increased.
Offsuited (o) – Two different cards with different colours. This is abbreviated with the letter “o”, for instance J-8o for J and 8 with different colours.
Connectors – Two cards in sequence, for instance T9, AK etc. Sometimes you speak about “one-gap-connectors” and “two-gap-connectors” in this group. This means that you have two cards with one and two gaps respectively between the cards, JK and AJ for example. It is always best if you get two cards in sequence without a gap as this increases the possibility to get a straight or at least the beginning of a straight at the flop.
Suited Connectors – Two cards in sequence and with the same colour. This gives bigger chances to get a straight as well as a flush. Suited connectors is the most obvious example of what is called “drawing hands” and often create strong hands when many cards are handed out on the table. High suited connectors are extra suitable for multiway-pots, pots where many players are involved, thanks to their properties as drawing hands. High suited connectors are of course also good in games against just a few players as then often just a high pair with good kicker-cards is enough to win.
Worth mentioning before you go on reading although it has nothing to do with starting hands is:
Outs – The number of cards in the pack of cards that help you win the pot. For example: You have AK, the flop gives A, 4, and 9. Your opinion is that another A or K will be enough for you to win. Your outs: Two more Aces plus three more Kings in the pack of cards equals five outs. This might be a bad example as you have a top pair and K as a kicker-card and still you are in quite a good position … .This is however just an example but I think you understand.
Kicker cards – Imagine that you have AK in your hand and that the flop results in A-4-8. Then you have a pair of Aces. If one of your opponents has A-3 in his hand then he also has a pair of Aces but you, for the time being, still have the best hand as your kicker card K is higher than the highest card your opponent can use in order to create the strongest hand. In this case your opponent’s kicker-card is 8 as this is the strongest card except the Ace on the table he can use.
A somewhat more difficult example: Let us say you have AQ and your opponent has AJ. All the cards are dealt and on the table there are A, Q, K, 9 and K (never mind about the colours). You might think you have the best hand but in reality you have equally strong hands because you both have the two strongest pairs AA and KK. As there is nothing called three pairs (because a maximum of 5 cards are used to create poker hand) both the players can only use the Queen as a kicker-card.
Finally an extra explanation to why for example JTs is so much better than Q8o
Possibilities to flop a straight with JT:
T J Q K A
7 8 9 T J
9 T J Q K
8 9 T J Q
+ flush possibilities
Possibilities to flop a straight with Q8:
8 9 T J Q
no flush possibilities
~~~~~~~~~~~And also this ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fixed limit starting hands
Texas Holdem pre-flop play from early position
This is how you select your starting hands and how you play them pre-flop when you sit at an early position at the table.
As mentioned earlier these suggestions in particular applies to a full table with 10 players and fixed limit. Applying these rules to tables with only 5 or 6 players or less including yourself will probably slowly but surely consume your money (Faster blind rotation)
It is better if you play too tightly than too loosely as a new player. By doing this you are kept away from tougher decisions and marginal hands that won´t even give hold'em pros any bigger profits in the long run. By staying away from these hands you will probably save money. Texas Holdem isn't just about maximizing winnings - you want to minimize your losses too. It is very important that you do not play bad starting hands. If you cannot keep away from doing that you will not win either. Remember that the average win only is somewhere between 1 and 3 BB/hour if you play well and this is not difficult to spend on bad starting hands and hands that are played too far!
The problem when playing at an early position:
You do not know how many players will join the betting round and how the players sitting after you will act. If you for instance make a bet with T9 offsuited (which you should get spank for) and the player to the left of you makes a raise this might lead to that most players after him fold. Due to this the odds for you will not at all be good for you as you at least can count on the fact that the other player has one good card on his hand or at least a fairly good pair (a bad player might have made a raise with bad cards but you should almost always assume that a raise means good cards). This means you will play two disadvantageous cards in a situation that will not pay off in the long run even if you flop pairs, two pairs, straights etc every now and then. The pots you win will then normally be too small to pay for the times you have screwed up.
When you spend money from an early position this should always be done on hands belonging to the strongest ones – you should even fold with many of these if somebody makes a raise. A raise is always only answered with a top quality starting hand from an early position. As a beginner you will find it hard to throw away hands you find strong (which they often are'nt!) – but you have to do this in order to win in fixed limit Hold’em. Practically everybody knows this but beginners find it hard to believe.
Pre-flop playing strategy from early position
In normal situations you make raises with these starting hands:
NB! Print out this tableto get a better description of how the hands should be played and how you answer to performed raises.
Question: Why should you make a raise with the above hands?
Answer: You are interested in playing your pairs and high cards against a few opponents as they then normally go on all the way. You are not afraid of raises after you as they probably will be in your favour. They tend to scare even more players away. Playing like this allows coincidence to work on fewer players so you hopefully will not risk that somebody flops two pairs of 4 and 9 etc … and at the same time the risk to be “out” after the flop is reduced. Cards in a suit manage quite well in pots where many players have joined. It is probable that you for the time being have the best hand even if somebody after you makes a raise. (You should however worry with everything below AA-KK-AK, especially if there are many re-raises).
In normal situations you make re-raises with these starting hands:
NB! Print out this table to get a better description of how the hands should be played and how you answer to performed raises.
Question: Why re-raise with these starting hands?
Answer: You probably have the strongest hand in spite of the fact that an other player made a raise. Your pair is the highest and often manages all the way to showdown with a profit as a result. The high sequential cards are very strong and also manage very well in pots where many players have joined.
You call with these starting hands:
NB! Print out this table to get a better description of how the hands should be played and how you answer to performed raises.
Question: Why call with these starting hands?
Answer: Perhaps you are thinking of making a raise with the pairs of medium size to make more players fold. This is however not to recommend as the only ones who will fold are the ones with low value cards. A few players with A, K etc… will stay on. Bad pot-odds and a weak hand is no success. That is why you call and hope for some help from the flop.
Limit and NL starting hands
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