Starting Hand Requirements for Hold'em

Continued from: Glossary of Terms for Hold'em Poker I'll start by addressing pre-flop play for beginners, giving special emphasis to which starting hands to play in which situations. Starting hand requirements is probably the single most important concept in NLH poker. Many beginners play with a sort of "any two will do" mentality, reasoning that they can't see throwing away a hand before the flop even comes out. These players are losing players and are at the very bottom of the NLH food chain. These are the fish that even the other fish eat.

The first real chapter in this system is going to explain exactly why the best plan is to start by playing premium hands only. Having that insight alone will give you a good chance to profit against bad players, and I think you should begin practicing for small stakes or at least by playing online poker for fake money as soon as you have set the beginners pre-flop strategy to memory. I want to touch on the subject of post-flop betting briefly though, before I suggest you get started.

In this section of the guide you will learn to make opening bets and raises before the flop, in multiples of the big blind. You will learn to bet, for instance 4 times the big blind, most of the time when you open a pot. Before you should begin practicing with these starting hands and pre-flop strategies you must also know to look at the post-flop betting in terms of fractions of the size of the pot. I will get into much greater detail on this in the next section, but you must have at least a remedial understanding of how to bet after the flop in order to benefit from the good positions you will be creating by playing correctly before the flop.

So, just a few rules of thumb: you should almost never bet less than half the pot after the flop, except for in very rare and specific situations. You should almost never bet more than the size of the pot. Your bets should average out to about two thirds the size of the pot and almost always between 1/3 and 1 size of the pot. If ever you are in doubt, just bet 2/3 the pot.

Now that I've provided a bit of information related to betting after the flop, you'll be more ready to get started on the more exhaustive analysis of pre-flop poker strategy that's to come. As you begin to grasp my beginners, or fundamental, pre-flop strategy, you will almost never find yourself in difficult situations after the flop. That's one of the most important concepts for new players to understand. You have to leave the difficult decisions to your opponents. Difficult decisions turn into mistakes, and your mistakes turn into some one else's profit.

There are many concepts that are necessarily learned and followed in order to properly play online poker, but nothing is more important than the ability to effectively select starting hands and play them properly before the flop. In this section I will lay out the starting hands that all beginners should play while they become comfortable with online NLH poker. I am basing all my standard starting hand charts tables and information on a table with between 8 and 10 players. Later in the text we'll address short-handed play. For now it's just important to note that the fewer players there are at a table, the more hands you should play and the more aggressive you should become in late position. The opposite then is also true - the more players there are, the tighter you should play.

The starting hands are designed to put you in good situations after the flop without putting you under a lot of pressure to make tough decisions. You'll notice that the later you are in betting, or your position, will impact the number of hands that will be profitable to play. Without a doubt, the most underestimated concept in poker is the power of position. If you play only the starting hands I recommend in the positions I suggest and you follow the very brief post-flop betting guidelines I've provided in the introduction, you would have a difficult time not earning a profit playing against the schools of fish that you find in the low stakes online poker rooms.

How to Play the Starting Hands

When you have one of these hands in the corresponding position you will be coming in with a raise. I recommend playing a very tight game against poor players, especially in the early stages of your poker development. I also recommend a very aggressive style. I don't want you to be calling bets and raises; I want you to be the aggressor. Either raise of fold, it really is that simple. The only exception will be in the form of speculative hands that I will discuss a bit later.

For now, just raise four times the big blind with any of these hands if no one has raised in front of you. If there are limpers in front of you, just add 1 big blind for every limper to the size of your bet. If the pot is raised in front of you, just throw your hand away unless it is a hand you would raise with in early position. If you have an early position open hand like QQ, and the pot is opened in front of you, you should re-raise about the size of the pot. Very often you'll just put in three times the original bet. If a player opens for $6 in first position and you have QQ, I want you to re-raise to about $18. Once you gain some experience you can start calling some bets and playing some flops. This strategy is going to help you to add to your bankroll while you learn the game of poker. And it does work.

Starting Hands To Play (Opening Hands)

FROM EARLY POSITION (under the gun, and the two seats after)
Play only: AA, KK, QQ, AK, AQ, TT, and AJs (throw everything else away)

FROM MIDDLE POSITION
Add: 99, 88, 77, KQs, 66, ATs, 55, and AJ

FROM LATE POSITION
Add: KQ, 44, KJs, 33, 22, AT, and QJs

♣ Continued at: Game Selection: How to Win at Online Poker

♣ Back to the index of articles about online poker games.