In
a Texas Hold ’Em hand, there’s no prize for second-best. You enter each and
every hand with the idea of winning. It’s not a horse race where a place or show
bet pays off. Therefore, your starting hand selection is the most important part
of the game.
It goes without saying that good starting cards will help
make your decisions much easier. However, it’s not always that simple. If, for
instance, you started each poker hand with K-Q suited, your opening move would
be different every time when you consider the tremendous amount of variables
involved. Beyond the strong starting hand, you have to consider several factors,
including: What is your position in the hand? Is the game tight or loose? What
type of players are you going up against? Has any other player called or raised?
How you play that suited K-Q in one hand can change 180 degrees in the next
hand. And if you don’t play it correctly, it just may end up costing
you.
There are several starting-hand strategies which are promoted, but
one that’s universally recognized as the best for most players is using hand
value and position. Simply put, hand value and position breaks down like this:
From the early position, only strong starting cards like big pairs of queens and
above, or A-K, A-Q should be played. As your position moves closer to the
middle, pairs down to nines and lesser combinations like A-J, K-Q, Q-J and A-9
can safely be put into play. The progression follows with late position, where
any pair becomes a viable option, along with suited connectors and combinations
like K-10 and Q-9. But position and hand value are just two components to
determine whether you get in or get out.
Because
five or the seven cards dealt in Hold’em are community cards, the game is about
what you have in the hole, not about chasing pairs. The reason? If you improve,
your opponent usually will too. If you don’t consistently start with higher
cards than your opponents, no matter how many years you’ve put in at the tables,
you will not come out a winner.
If you draw pocket pairs, where odds run
16-1, consider yourself lucky and in good position to win the pot. But you still
have to know how to play them correctly, whether you’re sitting with a pair or
deuces or a monster pair of aces.
High
Pairs
If you strike with pocket aces or kings, you have the
ultimate edge. The first thing that should go through your mind is how to
maximize your profit. But don’t give away your hand and get greedy. Scaring away
the entire table won’t do you any good. You want at least two to three callers
left to pluck before the flop. Anymore callers than that and something bizarre
might occur by the time the river comes up. In others words, a big pair plays
well against a five-player table, but loses steam to a 10-player table.
A
pair of queens always looks sweat, but it can be dangerous. You have the
confidence of a monster hand, but the trepidation of getting hit with a king or
ace overcard, a card that opponents will more than likely play. Jacks can be
played like queens, hitting the table with a big raise, betting on the flop,
then hoping everyone folds.
Low Pairs
There’s one
thought when starting with a small pair. Ending up with a set. If you have 7-7
and the flop doesn’t produce the third seven, start thinking of high-tailing it
out of the hand. With small pairs you want to see the flop as cheaply as
possible. If the pre-flop cost is too high, don’t hang around. And since it’s
rare that a set will be beaten by a higher set, having threes in your pocket is
only slightly worse than a set of eights. As with any hand, your position makes
a difference on how to play a low pair as well.
