A Guide to Starting Hands in Texas Hold 'Em
Starting hands refer to the two cards that a player receives after the forced bets are paid and before the first three community cards are revealed. Those cards are a decisive factor in a player's success in the round as they will be the ones that will determine a player's advantage over the opponents at the table since they are of the player and the player only whereas the five community cards are shared by all the players at the table.
As such, players of Texas Hold 'Em, especially the beginners, should know which starting hands are worth playing until the very end and which ones are not.
Knowing which ones are worthy of one's chips and which ones are good for nothing will maximize one's gains and minimize one's losses since one will only go all out for the hands that has a decent chance of winning the pot and fold immediately with those that has no prospects of winning.
Foremost of the best pairs to stick with is a pair of aces. Also known in poker slang as American Airlines and bullets, it is pretty much self-explanatory why such a pair is the best that a player can be dealt with since aces are the highest value cards in the game.
Next to a pair of aces are the pair of kings and the pair of queens. Like the pair of aces, one can not go wrong with such pairs as the least that can happen if the community cards do not go well is that one will end up with a pair of high-value cards, certainly not a sure winner but not a sure loser either.
The other good starting hands are but other combinations of face cards and aces. They are not as good as the earlier pairs but they are worth sticking to especially if the flops cooperate as they will be likely winners if ever that happens.
From the best hands, let us focus now on the worst hands that a player can get. The worst hand that a player can get is a combination of a 2 and a 7 regardless whether they are suited or not. Unless the flop comes up with a 2 AND a 7 too, nothing good will ever come out of this pair as they are inappropriate for all the hand combinations aside from the aforementioned two pair which is in all aspects very unlikely.
The same goes for all the iterations of this 2-7 combination such as 2-8, 2-9, 3-9 and 4-9. As said, unless the flop comes up with cards that will let one come up with two pairs, nothing can be gleaned from such hands and even if the flop does, having a two pair with such values will still not make one a sure winner. Such hole cards should be folded immediately to avoid possible losses to one's bankroll.