Loading...How Not to Suck at Poker: Play Fewer Hands
By Sean Lind
The fewer hands you play, the better you get at folding. It sucks to suck at things. And Texas Hold'em really is a tough game that can be frustrating for beginners.
You lose to your friends in your home games. You lose the first few bucks you deposit online. Worse, you may not even understand why.
Are you just unlucky? Are you making huge mistakes? Are you missing one simple concept that could change things?
The truth: You're really not that far behind 95% of the poker players in the world. And you don't need to be the foremost expert on the game to become a winning poker player.
In fact, a relatively small amount of basic poker principles can produce massive improvements in your results almost immediately.
And the true first step to becoming a good poker player: simply figuring out how to stop sucking at it.
This is the first in a 10-part series explaining exactly how to do that on the most basic level, starting with the most important tip of all: playing fewer hands.
How Not to Suck at Poker Tip 1: Play Fewer Hands.
In Texas Hold'em, there are 169 different possible starting hands you can be dealt (this is ignoring specific suits).
Out of all these possible hands, there are only five hands that are considered "premium."
- AA
- KK
- AK (Suited)
- JJ
Regardless of your position at the table, a premium hand should always be played if there is no raise ahead of you. If there is a raise ahead of you - especially if there are callers or re-raises - sometimes it can even be a mistake to play anything below Aces or Kings.
When you think about Texas Hold'em starting hands in this light, you'll realize that you should be folding around 80% more hands than you should be playing at any given Hold'em table.
The stronger your starting hands are, the fewer difficult decisions you're forced to make.
Naturally, the hands you play, and how you play them, will change depending on thousands of different variables at the table.
But at the very core of the game, there are very few hands that are considered playable.
If there has been no player to open the pot (meaning no one has raised, or even limped ahead of you) you can play almost any hand with any sort of potential value.
Once someone has raised ahead of you, your hand selection should be narrowed down to only the hands that can give you the nuts, and help keep you out of any situation which has you dominated.
For example: you should never play KQ into a raise, as AA, KK, QQ, AK, and AQ all have you dominated.
Unless you have a very good reason to do so, as a beginner poker player you should stick to playing only the top 10 to 15 hands, period.
The more you play, and the better you become at the game, the more hands you can add to your playlist.
Until then, keep it simple, and always head to the flop with the best of it.
Top 15 Hold'em Starting Hands
- AA
- KK
- AK (suited)
- JJ
- 1010
- AQ (suited)
- AJ (suited)
- AK (off suit)
- KQ (suited)
- A10 (suited)
- KJ (suited)
- AQ (off suit)
- 99
- JQ (suited)
Stay tuned for the next installment: How Not to Suck at Poker: Play in Position.
More on how not to suck at poker:
- How Not to Suck at Poker: Play Fewer Hands
- How Not to Suck at Poker: Play in Position
- How Not to Suck at Poker: Count Your Outs
- How Not to Suck at Poker: Learn Basic Odds
- How Not to Suck at Poker: Pay Attention
- How Not to Suck at Poker: Have a Bankroll
- How Not to Suck at Poker: Stop Bluffing
- How Not to Suck at Poker: Keep Your Mouth Shut
- How Not to Suck at Poker: Keep Records
- How Not to Suck at Poker: Discuss the Game
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Comment(s) on this article
Grundy May 12, 2009
Completely agree.
I think players watch too much TV poker, see all this action with little to no folding and think that is how the game is played. They forget the editing takes all the hands out of context.
I'd also add that as your table becomes short-handed, the playable hands start to open up.
DadeMurphy1 May 13, 2009
Great starting point for beginners.
Mooscows May 13, 2009
"169 different possible starting hands?" How do you figure?
Sean Lind May 13, 2009
Hey Mooscows, here's how it breaks down
There are 13 different ranks in a deck, meaning 13 different possible pocket pairs.
13 × 12 / 2 = 78 suited hands
And there has to be as many unsuited hands as suited, giving us 78 unsuited hands
13 + 78 + 78 = 169
You might be confused thinking of the total possible starting hands (specific suits)
(52 × 51)/2 = 1,326
But since AK of clubs is no different than AK of diamonds preflop, it makes no sense to count all the possible options with suits.
One thing to note about the 169 number. Not all starting hands have the same probability of being dealt. It's much harder to be dealt AK suited than AK off suit for example. In fact, you're even more likely to be dealt AA than AK suited.
Mooscows May 13, 2009
Thanks for the explanation. It is the "ignoring specific suits" phrase in the article that is a little confusing.
Good article.
Jacob Jun 22, 2009
These articles are excellent. For players like myself, who just jump into playing with friends for small stakes, these are helpful tips we tend to not take into consideration.
Keep up the good work.
Joseph Jun 23, 2009
This Really worked, at least for me. Thanks! before i played waay to many hands, got lucky on some, but kept losing and didnt know why, now i know...
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