Odds Of Starting Hands In Texas Holdem

Odds Of Starting Hands In Texas Holdem Average ratng: 3,8/5 8458 votes

The strength of your starting hand in Texas Hold'em can help you determine your chances of winning, even before the remaining cards are dealt. From a pair of aces — the strongest starting hand — to a 2 and a 7, knowing the strength of your starting hand is an important part of your success at the table. What hands win the most in Texas Hold’em? Although aces form a winning hand 80% of the time, they are prone to losing against better hands. Two pairs will take the pot 31% of the time, while a simple pair will win the game 27% of the time. Texas Holdem Poker Two Card Hand Frequencies. Both before and after the flop in any limit Holdem game, it is helpful to be able to make a reasonably accurate estimate of the types and numbers of playable hands that you are likely to be competing against.

Poker odds charts come in useful when you want to quickly work out the odds of winning a hand in Texas Hold'em. The most commonly used odds charts are the 'standard poker odds charts' below, which give both the percentage and ratio odds of completing your draw depending on the number of outs you have (see pot odds and drawing hands for more information).

Odds Of Starting Hands In Texas Holdem

In the case of Texas Hold'em, there's the 2 pocket cards and 5 on the board. This way of working out the probabilities would be the more accurate way - however, just to note, the probabilities worked out on 5 of 52 are practically the same, and far easier to calculate. Texas Hold'em Odds and Starting Hand Ranking for All Starting Hands. There are 1326 different combinations possible. Odds for 5 different categories.

The second set of odds charts highlight interesting odds for different situations in Texas Hold'em. These will help you get to grips with the different likelihood's and chances within the game of poker.

Standard poker odds charts.

Ratio odds chart.

Other poker odds charts.

All-in odds.
Odds Of Starting Hands In Texas Holdem
Aces odds.

Why use these odds charts?

There are currently many odds charts on the Internet at numerous poker websites. However many of these can be tricky to use. ThePokerBank provides easy to use charts highlighting the key draws on each, which makes them simple and effective to use during play.

I am confident that these odds charts are the easiest charts that you will ever use.

How to use poker odds charts.

Poker odds charts help you to determine how much you can call when trying to complete a drawing hand, such as a flush or a straight draw. By comparing your pot odds with the odds of completing your draw, you can work out whether or not it will be profitable to call certain sized bets from your opponents.

Poker odds charts are most commonly used when working out pot odds.

Hands

It is perfectly possible to work out the odds of completing a draw in your head, but these odds charts make things much easier if you are looking for a quick reference or if you're just starting out. However, over time it is a good idea to learn the most common odds so that you no longer have to refer to any charts whilst you play.

Work out probabilities for yourself.

Don't just take my word for it or settle for the probabilities I've listed on the site, try working out probabilities for yourself. It's not as tricky or mathsy as you might think.

My guide on how to work out preflop hand probabilities gives a nice overview on basic starting hand probabilities. For flop probabilities and the likelihood of different combinations of cards on the flop, try the article on working out flop probabilities.

Go back to the handy Texas Hold'em tools.

What is a Poker Cheat Sheet?

A poker cheat sheet is a guide to help you learn the absolute basic fundamentals to play solid poker in order to beat micro and low stake games. Like any endeavour, it takes time, experience and regular evaluation to become a master. The idea behind a cheat sheet is that you can refer to it easily to help you make better decisions than you would otherwise. While you have cheat sheets with poker and for example Blackjack, this is not real ‘cheating’. Cheating the casino is not allowed and can get you into trouble.

Hand Rankings

Odds Of Starting Hands In Texas Holdem

If you are new to poker, you will need to understand the proper hand rankings. The list below should help you understand the respective hand rankings.

Calculating Outs as Odds

To make better decisions, you will want to know the chances of improving your hand and reconciling that with the amount your opponent is betting. The table below should help you see, at a glance, the approximate percentage of you making your hand for the most common scenarios you will find yourself in. After a while, calculating your outs and converting them to odds will become intuitive. In the meantime, feel free to refer to this table.

Hand Selection – Open Raising

Choosing which hands to play is very important. It’s the first key decision of any poker hand. If you are starting out in poker. The most important thing is to play a selective hand range based on the position you are in. As you lack the post flop skills to profitably make marginal pre flop calls, you will need to be careful about the hands you play. The table below is a guide to hands you can open raise with, if you are first to enter the pot i.e. nobody has raised in front of you. Please note that the table assumes you are opening the hand ranges in the earlier positions too e.g. You open KJ suited in early position therefore you are opening it in mid position too.

Please note I have not assigned a hand range to open raise from the small blind with. I firmly believe this is the worst spot to open raise in Texas Holdem from and don’t think it would be wise to advise a wide open raise range from here. Instead, play very careful from there. Look to minimize how much you lose and let the strong hands do their “talking” so to speak.

Odds Of Starting Hands In Texas Holdem Tournaments

Hand Selection – Calling Raises

Odds Of Starting Hands In Texas Holdem

Odds of starting hands in texas holdem tournaments

As you won’t have the pre-flop aggression in the hand when calling a raise, it is important you are calling raises with hands that are at least as equal in value to the likely range your opponent is raising with and preferably with position on them. There is no cheat to knowing what hands you should call player A’s raise with. Instead, think about the type of player raising and act accordingly. In other words, if it is a loose player opening, you can widen the hands you call with as he is opening wider than a tight player. If it is a tight player opening, you should be looking to play less hands or hands that can break him and his premium hands e.g. low pairs.
As a very basic guide consider calling raises with the hands below.

  1. Any Pocket Pair
  2. A Q off suit
  3. A J suited
  4. A Q suited
  5. A T suited
  6. K Q suited

Hand Selection – Re Raising AKA 3 Bet

Starting out, I recommend 3 betting with AK suited, Pocket Queens, Kings and Aces. As you develop and gain experience you will certainly be re raising with other hands but this cheat sheet is purely for the new player playing micro/low stakes poker.

Post Flop Poker

You will quickly learn that playing the flop, turn and river is complex. As you are playing a selective hand range to begin with, you will not be facing as many difficult situations as a more experience player. Check out some tips to follow below.

  1. Miss the flop, get out of the way
  2. Be wary of straight and flushes if betting gets large
  3. Bet 50% or more of the pot when you bet
  4. Don’t attempt crazy bluff bets when you are multi way
  5. Don’t slowplay your hands, people will call you down at micro stakes so less need for deception
  6. Bet your top pair or better hands
  7. Don’t get too attached to Ace King if you miss!

Conclusions

Best Odds Starting Hands Texas Holdem

This cheat sheet is aimed at the new player coming to poker in 2020 who has no experience but wants to learn quickly. Understanding hand rankings, what hands to play and the basic odds are the most simple and fundamental skills to be a competent player, capable of winning at micro stakes. There is so much more strategy and complexity to Texas Holdem that can take years to master but we hope this cheat sheet will help you at the start of your poker journey. This sheet is designed to help poker players but there are other sites offering a complete guide to finding a new casino in 2020.
I hope you enjoyed this article. Feel free to contact us if you are interested in finding out how we can help you improve your game and bankroll in 2020. You can download our poker cheat sheet below for free or sign up to our poker training video membership by paying below. This gives you 12 months access to all video content for just £49.99.

Join Texas Hold’em Questions Poker Training Video Membership