Twenty-Three Starting Hands
The most common beginner’s Hold’em question is: “What hands should I play?”
By now you already know the answer to that question must be: “It depends.” Depends on position, opponent, stack size etc. But let’s just answer the question from this point of view: “What are the best starting hands?”
There is general agreement on the top three tiers of “best” starting hands.
Group A: AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AKs (Even here some believe AKo is actually better than JJ)
Group B: AQs, TT, AKo, AJs, KQs, 99 (Again some debate here, as some believe the bigger suited cards are superior to the smaller pairs)
Group C: ATs, AQ, KJs, 88, KTs, QJs (The debate here centers again on which are stronger pairs or suited overcards)
Group D: A9s, AJ, QTs, KQ, 77, JTs (We should add here that many feel small pairs 66-22 are more valuable in no limit games and less valuable in limit games)
After the agreement on AA, KK, QQ as the top three starting hands, very few agree on the “correct” order of the rest of the list and many would make this list a bit shorter or longer but you get the general idea.
-This is Beginner’s Poker Blog Post #145
