Poker Starting Hands
There are many strategies for poker, but not many are as important as what starting hands to play, where and how to play them because if these 3 things are not met and the hand is folded pre flop there is no need for any of the other strategy to be played in that hand, I am going to try and give a run down of hands starting hands putting them into the categories “premium hands”, “strong speculative hand,” “weak Speculative hands” and finally “hands you should fold” I will then give a brief over view of the Positions you should play these in and what Pre flop strategy to adopt with them. However at yourpokernow we do have articles covering both of these sections so I would advise you take a brief look at them as well.
Premium hands – The group of cards that I would consider as the “premium hands” are obviously AA followed by KK, QQ, JJ, 1010, AK, AQ. These hands should be raised at any chance you should expect to have the best hand pre flop with any of these and if you hit on the flop you should expect to be leading there as well as hands you hit will be high pairs with high kickers at the minimum, take care though as just because you have these hands you are not guaranteed to win although you should expect to win the majority of the time.
Strong Speculative hands – the range of cards I would consider as strong speculative cards are AJ, A10, KQ, KJ, QJ, Q10, and all the pocket pairs down from 9s to 7s. these hands are strong starting hands because if the flop goes your way you will the majority of the time still pick up top pair with a good kicker or if the board is low you pocket pairs should be good enough to do the job as well. However you should have a little degree of caution attached to them you should not be looking to play these hands under a raise because the chance is you will be running into one of the “Premium” hands, how ever they are good to see a cheap flop with or to make a small raise with if you are only in a pot with one or two others, I would consider trying to avoid playing these hands in an “early” position as you could be Throwing away unnecessary chips.
Weak Speculative Hands – The range of cards I would class as weak speculative would 66, A9s, A5s-A2s, K9s,, KT,, QT, Q9s,J10 QJ, T8s, 97s, 87s, 76s, 65s,55, 44, 33, 22, K9, J9, 86s,T9, 98, 85s ,Q9, J8, T8, 87, 76, 65 . These hands depend very much on what Position you are in as well as some other Pre-flop variables for example how many players are already in the pot what is the pot total, how do the players around the table play loose or tight? These are all questions that must be asked when playing these hands, however that is not to say these hands cannot be profitable if you can see a cheap flop with these hands they can lead to some good run or flush draws which means you can normally disguise them well and make a good profit if you adopt the right playing style, I would generally only play these hands in late position and only under a call situation.
Hands you should fold – any of the hands not mentioned above should really be folded in the majority of situations, however you also have to remember to mix your game up from time to time only take this article as a guide not set in stone as you play will become dull and predictable making you very easy to beat remember if the time is right spice things up play the occasional Bluff and keep your opponents on there toes.
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