NL Hold’em Starting Hand Charts

Moving from the top of the hand rankings above down, in a Texas holdem game it’s impossible for more than one player to have a royal flush unless the royal flush has all five cards on the board. If all five cards on the board are used in this way by every player remaining in the hand, all of the players tie. Sep 08, 2020 When playing Texas Hold’em it’s technically possible to have three pairs, but since a poker hand only consists of 5 cards only the 2 highest pairs are in play. For example, if you hold Q-J and the board reads Q-J-6-A-A you only have two pair: Aces and Queens. Does Royal Flush have to be spades? In poker, players form sets of five playing cards, called hands, according to the rules of the game. Each hand has a rank, which is compared against the ranks of other hands participating in the showdown to decide who wins the pot. In high games, like Texas hold 'em and seven-card stud, the highest-ranking hands win.

One aspect of the game of No-Limit Hold’em that causes beginning players much grief is deciding which hands to play and which hands to dump. NL Hold’em is much more difficult than Limit Hold’em because the value of a hand depends on so many factors other than just the cards in your hand. Despite this difficulty, our coaches believe that following some general guidelines and adjusting from these is a better solution than having no guidelines at all. Given that well over half of your profitability in NL Hold’em is based on hand selection alone, we have developed these charts to help you better determine whether to play or fold.

There are no perfect No-Limit starting hand charts. That is because there are many factors that affect your decision, and charts cannot account for all of them. Some of these include:

1. The size of your opponent's stacks.
2. How loose or tight, passive or aggressive, your opponents are.
3. Where these opponents are located at the table – for example, does an aggressive player still have to act after you?
4. Your image at the table – for example, how tight or tricky you are perceived.

That being said, these charts will serve you well in most typical low-stakes No-Limit cash games, such as games with blinds of $1/$2, and home games. These games typically have several loose players at the table, and good opportunities for winning big pots with suited connectors and pocket pairs. With practice, you will be able to be a consistently winning player with these charts as a starting point. As you improve, you'll find yourself making adjustments to these charts based on the factors listed above, and more.

AGAIN: These charts are a good starting point for beginners. Specifically, Chart #1 recommends a significant amount of limping. This is great in loose, passive games but less often seen in tougher games. You’ll find other training material on Advanced Poker Training that may recommend a more aggressive approach for more experienced players.

Note: It would be a serious mistake to apply these hand charts before reading the Frequent Asked Questions first.

CHART #1 ‐ LOOSE, PASSIVE GAME (OFTEN 4-5 LIMPERS PER HAND)
NO ONE HAS RAISED YET

• Raise Always
• Call from Early Position, otherwise raise
• Call always
• Call from Middle or Late Position if the conditions are right (see Frequently Asked Questions)

CHART #2 ‐ TIGHTER GAME (FEWER LIMPERS) OR MORE AGGRESSIVE GAME
NO ONE HAS RAISED YET

• Raise Always
• Call from Early Position, otherwise raise
• Call (or Raise) from Middle or Late Position if the conditions are right (see Frequently Asked Questions)

CHART #3 ‐ THERE HAS BEEN A SINGLE RAISE
(3‐5 TIMES THE BIG BLIND) BEFORE YOU

• Re‐Raise Always
• Call from Early Position, otherwise re‐raise
• Call always
• Call from Middle or Late Position if the conditions are right (see Frequently Asked Questions)

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

For the hands in yellow, what do you mean when you say to play these hands if the conditions are right? The hands in yellow are speculative hands. They should always be folded from Early Position. From other positions, they can be profitable given the right conditions. Some of the questions to ask yourself:

1. Are there other players who have called so far (the more, the better)?
2. Are the players who have called playing poorly after the flop? Will they pay me off if I hit something?
3. Is there an aggressive player still to act behind me (you might get raised and have to fold)?
4. If there has been a raise and no other callers, what chance do I have of using my position after the flop to win the hand even if I don't improve (Chart #3 only)?

Why does Chart #2 say to sometimes raise with the hands in yellow, but Chart #1 does not? We have different goals in mind. Using Chart #1, we want to call to encourage additional players to enter the pot. These hands will be immensely profitable when our loose, passive opponents enter the hand, and get trapped when we flop a set, or make a well-disguised straight. When using Chart #2, however, we want to size up the opponents still to act. If they are tight, we can raise. Sometimes, we'll pick up the blinds. Other times, our pre-flop aggression will allow us to take down the pot on the flop.

What's the difference between AKs and AKo? AKs means an Ace and King of the same suit. AKo means an Ace and King of different suits.

What are early, middle, and late position? Early Position is generally the first 2 (in a nine player game) or 3 (in a ten player game) positions after the blinds. Late Position is the “cutoff” position (to the right of the dealer), and dealer button positions. Middle Position is everything in between.

How much should I raise? As a general rule, raise 3 to 4 times the big blind, plus 1 extra big blind for every player who has called before you. So if there are 2 callers already, raise between 5 and 6 times the big blind.

What if someone raises after I call? Whether you call the raise depends on how much money the raiser has for you to win, how many other players are involved, and what type of hand you have. As a general rule, if you have a pocket pair, lean towards calling. If there are a lot of other players (and therefore a big pot), lean towards calling. In general, fold suited connectors from early position. Fold hands like KQ that don't play well against a raiser.

How do I play from the blinds? From the small blind, play the same hands you would play from late position, plus a few more. But don't call with junk hands like T5o, just because it is “cheap”. From the big blind, if there is a raise to you, play like you would if you had already called from early position.

The chart says to fold KQo to a raise. Really? Yes, this hand performs very poorly against typical raising hands. Against AK, AQ, AA, KK, QQ, you are a big underdog. Other typical raising hands like JJ, TT, 99, AJs, are slightly ahead of you as well. The only time you might call or re-raise is from late position, if the opener was in middle or late position, indicating they might have a wider range of hands.

I was told to fold AJo from Early Position, why do you say to call with it? Folding AJo is not a bad idea in many games. We included it because, at low stakes tables (even tight or aggressive ones), the players are often playing badly enough after the flop that it can be profitable. We used data from millions of hands of low-limit poker to analyze this. The same could be said for KQo, ATs, and KJs – you can make a small profit in the long run at most low-stakes games, but folding would be perfectly acceptable from early position.

Can I use these charts in a NL Hold'em tournament? The charts would be best applicable to the early stages of a NL tournament, when everyone has a deep stack. In the middle and later stages, they should not be used.

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When the poker boom hit in 2003 after Chris Moneymaker famously won the World Series of Poker Main Event, Texas Hold ‘em was all the rage. But for many in the years prior, their introduction to poker came through a very different game.

Five Card Draw has always been one of the games that people would play around the house or at parties. For anyone that didn’t know how to play poker, the simplicity of the rules made it an easy variation of the game to start with.

It is one of the earliest forms of poker on record. In addition, it is one of the most famous as any movie that poker was a part of in the pre-poker boom era most likely featured Five Card Draw.

Five Card Draw is the game believed to have been played during the days of the Wild West when “Wild” Bill Hickok was famously shot to death while playing. As legend has it, he was holding two pairs, Aces and Eights, a hand that is now nicknamed “The Deadman’s Hand” due to this ominous occasion.

The game is no longer spread in brick and mortar casinos unless requested. Online you can find plenty of games, however. Luckily, if you’ve never played before, Five Card Draw is one of the more basic and straightforward forms of poker.

The best place to start when discussing the basics is the hand rankings. Before diving into how the game is played it is important to know what constitute a good hand so that you can determine what you should do when it is your turn to draw cards.

Five Card Draw follows the same high hand guidelines as all of its fellow poker game variants. To understand the hand rankings of a poker game take a look at the graphic below:

Five Card Draw will usually be played 6-handed. Because of the draw nature of the game, anything more than 6 and you risk not having enough cards in the deck to cover everyone’s draw.

The hand will start in one of two ways depending on the betting structure being used. In Five Card Draw you will sometimes see it played where everyone posts an ante, but the more popular way and the way that you will see it played online is that there will be a small blind and a big blind.

If you’re familiar with Texas Hold ‘em or Omaha than you know this format quite well. If you are new to poker entirely here is what we mean by small blind and big blind:

Small Blind

The small blind is the first forced bet by the first player on the direct left of the dealer. The amount of the small blind will be half of the big blind, which is considered the full bet amount.

Big Blind

The player to the direct left of the small blind will post the second forced bet known as the big blind. This big blind amount constitutes a full bet.

Once the blinds are posted the dealer deals each player five cards face down.

At this point, the first round of betting occurs, starting with the player on the direct left of the big blind. Once this round of betting has completed it is now time for the players to draw.

The “draw” in Five Card Draw is the heart of the game. After the first round of betting, players have the option to discard cards they do not want and draw new ones from the top of the deck.

5 Card Texas Holdem Hands Play

If a player likes the first five cards they were dealt they can choose not to draw any cards. This is known as “standing pat”.

After each player left in the hand has had a chance to discard and draw new cards, another round of betting occurs. After this final round of betting the remaining players table their hands and the player with the best hand is declared the winner.

The betting structure of Five Card Draw resembles that of Texas Hold ‘em. Each hand starts with a small blind and big blind posting their bets. The game can either be played in the fixed limit structure, or the no limit structure.

In fixed limit Five Card Draw, betting is done in increments of the big blind equivalent. In no limit Five Card Draw the only limitation to how much you can bet is the amount of chips in your stack.

Overview

By now you have found that the rules of Five Card Draw are fairly simple and straightforward. A quick recap of the game sequence is as follows:

• Each player is dealt five cards.
• A round of betting, starting to the left of the big blind occurs.
• Players discard the cards they do not want and draw new cards
• A round of betting starting with the first live player to the left of the dealer.

In Five Card draw you will most likely always be drawing cards. It is fairy rare to be dealt an extremely strong hand on the first deal.

For reference, take a look at this mathematical chart below of the chances of being dealt certain strong hands prior to the drawing round:

• Royal flush <0.001%
• Straight flush (not including royal flush) <0.002%
• Four of a kind 0.02%
• Full house 0.14%
• Flush (excluding royal flush and straight flush) 0.20%
• Straight (excluding royal flush and straight flush) 0.39%
• Three of a kind 2.11%
• Two pair 4.75%
• One pair 42.30%
• No pair / High card 50.10%

At this point it is pretty safe to say that you have a solid understanding of the rules of Five Card Draw.

Hands Of Texas Holdem

To understand the game even deeper and to get some tips and tricks on how to be more profitable at the tables check out our Guide to Five Card Draw section and best of luck along the way.