Holdem Starting Hands

The best starting hands in Hold'em are subject to a lot of debate but the generally accepted rankings are as follows. Bear in mind that as well as your hole cards, you have to consider your position, and other players opening bets when decideding whether to play a hand.

The following chart shows when two hole cards can be played NOT when they should be played. A tight player would generally only ever play hands from groups 1 to 3. Except they will play any starting hand when they are in the Big Blind and they can see the flop for free, or pay maybe one more small bet to see the flop holding a group 4 or 5 hand.

Any hand not listed below should be consdered unplayable. That doesn't mean they can't win. It means over time they will cost you a lot of chips if you keep playing them.

(s) suited	Hole Cards	Can be played
Group 1	AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AKs	Always - with a raise or reraise
Group 2	TT, AQs, AJs, KQs, AK	Always - with a raise or call
Group 3	99, JTs, QJs, KJs, ATs, AQ	Always - be prepared to fold if raised to much
Group 4	T9s, KQ, 88, QTs, 98s, J9s, AJ, KTs	Middle to late, early if there's not been much raising before th flop
Group 5	77, 87s, Q9s, T8s, KJ, QJ, JT, 76s, 97s, Axs, 65s	Middle to late
Group 6	66, AT, 55, 86s, KT, QT, 54s, K9s, J8s, 75s	late
Group 7	44, J9, 43s, T9, 33, 98, 64s, 22, Kxs, T7s, Q8s	late
Group 8	87, 53s, A9, Q9, 76, 42s, 32s, 96s, 85s, J8, J7s, 65, 54, 74s, K9, T8	late

Jessica-Jane Clement

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