| Starting Hands in No Limit Holdem |
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No limit holdem is one of the most fun and most popular poker games to play.
If you are new to no limit holdem, you may be wondering what your range of starting hands should be.
If you're not wondering this, you should be. Hand selection is one of the most important factors for winning poker.
If you start out with a better hand on average than your opponents,
you will probably end up with a better hand more often
Professional poker players play a wide range of hands. You may have seen poker players on television successfully playing nearly any two cards. As the saying goes, don't try this at home. There are a host of reasons why that pro may have chosen to play a certain hand, including: Being a short stack late in a tournament and being forced to make a move, having cultivated a tight image to set up a bluff, and being extremely skilled in post flop play so they are able to win large pots when these hands hit and lose very little when they don't When you start out in no limit holdem, you should limit your starting hand requirements to big cards and pairs. Even small pairs are okay to throw away when in early position and facing a raise. Hands like AK and AQ are great, of course, especially if they are suited, as are other big card hands like TJ or KQ. Some of these big card hands, like AT through AQ and KT through KQ are considered trouble hands. The reason they are trouble hands is that if you pair one of your cards on the flop, it will be very difficult for you to get away from the hand even if there is betting, although anyone with a hand that holds an ace or a king with a better kicker than yours will certainly play, and have you dominated For this reason you should try not to play all but the most premium hands out of position. If you are one of the last to act, playing a hand like AT or KT is pretty safe. You will get a lot of information from your opponents as to whether or not your hand is good after the flop. If you have to act first, you could easily be trapped with these hands The rule of thumb should be, play big cards and pairs, but if there is a raise, you need to up your standards to continue playing. Remember that you need a better hand to call a raise with than to make a raise with. If you are not sure whether to continue, consider your position in the hand, and if you are still not sure, fold. You generally lose less money with folding errors than calling errors |