Of all the possible starting hands you can be dealt in Texas Hold 'Em, the following five hands are the least welcome. If you're dealt one of these hands, there are almost no circumstances in which you should play them. If you see these particular card combinations in your starting hand, your. Double-suited AAKK is the absolute best starting hand. AAJT is right behind it and has a higher straight potential than AAQQ, the third highest-rated starting hand. The majority of the 30 highest-ranked PLO hands feature at least a single strong pair. They include either AA, KK, QQ, or JJ. A regularly cited poker proverb claims that if you had to play one hand against pocket aces with your life on the line, Jack Ten suited would be the best possible hand to slay the dragon. What’s the Best Hold’em Hand? If you’re pre-flop the answer is easy: pocket aces. Outside of those. In the poker game of Texas hold 'em, a starting hand consists of two hole cards, which belong solely to the player and remain hidden from the other players. Five community cards are also dealt into play. Betting begins before any of the community cards are exposed, and continues throughout the hand. The player's 'playing hand', which will be compared against that of each competing player, is the best 5.
In the first part of the article we looked at Six plus Hand Rankings, where it became clear that the 16 cards missing from the deck in this variant leads to a slight, but important, changes in how strong the starting hands are which we will receive.
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What Are The Best Starting Hands In Poker
Pocket Aces
If we look at traditional Texas Hold’em starting hands, we would expect to get our beloved AA about once every 221 hands, so what about in our new version of the game?
Well, without troubling you with the maths (I CAN do it, honestly!) the answer is you’ll get your pocket rockets once every 105 hands, which is more than twice as often as in Texas Hold’em!
Naturally, what goes for aces also goes for the other pairs – you’ll have a pocket pair more than twice as regularly in Six plus Hold’em (as will your opponent! Don’t forget this important consideration).
Are there any other changes we need to know about regarding starting hands?
Let's Say We have JJ
A naturally tricky starting hand in Texas Hold’em, but one we would probably open-raise with pre-flop. How does it fare in Six Plus?
We need to realize that instead of beating nine other pairs pre-flop, now it is only a favorite against 5, and still a dog to QQ, KK and AA. So it is not as strong in this respect.
However, because 3 of a kind now beats a straight in Six Plus, flopping a set becomes very strong against many hands – flushesare harder to come by, as we saw previously, because there are only nine cards of any single suit available in the deck.
So, how often will our smaller pairs flop a set? In Texas Hold’em it’s about 11.8% or roughly one time in eight. In Six Plus, we will do the maths quickly (just to prove I can!)
There are 36 cards in the pack, we have – let’s say again – JJ in our hand. So there are two jacks left in the 34 remaining cards.
What About the Hated 72 Offsuit?
In traditional Texas Hold’em this is the worst starting hand, and almost completely unplayable. Well, as you can probably work out yourself quite easily, in Six Plus the equivalent hand is J 6 offsuit, which, let’s be honest, would rarely be played even in our normal game!
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Playing AK Becomes an 'Interesting' Problem
Well, first off, we will be dealt AK about 2.5% of our hands – which is quite a lot of the time, maybe once every five or six rounds at a full ring table, so it’s important enough to learn its worth in Six Plus Hold’em.
If we accept that suited versions become a lot more valuable - flushes beat full houses in our new version - then it can also make sense to play AKs slower than usual. Mixing our game up with AKs hides our play better, while AKo is still a very strong hand which we can 3-bet and even consider stacking off with.
Small Pairs
Of course 66 now becomes the smallest pocket pair. In Texas Hold’em we could consider calling pre-flop raises with this hand if the price was right – flopping a set and cracking a higher pair is our main goal – but now we have to consider that we are essentially playing 22 in a game where set-over-set sees our 6’s screwed, although on the plus side they do now beat straights!
Relative Hand Values
We need to be aware that these change a fair bit from Texas Hold’em, since stronger hands in general are being played across the board. Top pair, top kicker is nowhere near as strong – in fact it is very unlikely to win on its own as a best hand at showdown in 6-max or full-ring when we play Six Plus Hold’em.
There is also the ‘alternative river version’ of the game to consider, when receiving an extra hole card means that hand strengths can become stronger still.
So, in general two pair would be a median winning hand at full-ring – a useful thing to know when planning your hand strategy!
We will look at the change in Pot Odds in part 3, but a casual glance at things like ‘drawing hands’ shows that we are more likely to his many of them, as we have fewer cards left containing the same number of outs. For example, a gutshot – where any of four cards hits for us – now gives us 4/31 chances to hit after the flop, as opposed to 4/47 in Texas Hold’em – a significant difference indeed!
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When it comes to Texas Hold’em, the cards that you start with are only a part of the puzzle when it comes to determining whether you will win or not. Even so, it is important to know which are the best starting poker hands. Knowing whether you start out with a significant advantage should help you make decisions when it comes to folding, calling or raising at each step of the hand.
#1: Pocket Aces
Obviously, this would be a pair of aces. This is the very best way to start out your hand of Texas Hold’em. If you draw pocket aces, the hand that has the best chance of beating you one-on-one is 5-6 of the same suit. Of all the best poker hands, this is the top of them all.
#2: Pocket Kings
This would be the second-best way to start a hand. For those who don’t think optimistically, though, kings are referred to as “ace magnets.”
#3: Pocket Queens
Oftentimes this turns out to be an overpair to the flop. Just in case you’re not noticing a trend in these hands, look at the next one.
#4: Pocket Jacks
Texas Hold Em Starting Hands
Jacks are called fishhooks by poker players. However, there are some poker players who have a difficult time dealing with jacks, but a pair of them is still a great way to start.
Best Starting Texas Holdem Hands
#5: Suited King-Ace (King and Ace of the same suit)
Of the best poker hands that are not a pocket pair of face cards, this is the best way to start. This hand is also called “big slick.” Of course, it is possible to miss the flop with king-ace, but you’ll learn how to avoid that mistake.
#6: Pocket Tens
This is another hand you can play aggressively, unless you see a ton of action on the table with you, because that means that someone might have one of the hands listed above.
#7: Ace-King Off Suit (King and Ace of different suits)
Best To Worst Starting Hands In Poker
If you draw this, you have about a 50-50 chance to win against just about any holding that isn’t ace-king.
#8: Suited Queen-Ace
You get a lot of postflop playability with this hand. You’ll run into a lot of tough top pairs this way, and on a queen-high flop you’ll have the high pair top kicker.
#9: Pocket Nines
This is a great hand to play preflop. You can call a raise, raise yourself, or do some 3-betting here.
#10: Suited Jack-Ace
Similar to the suited queen-ace, you get a lot of playability postflop, along with a chance at a few tough top pairs at the flop. There is also a lot of potential for the straight and flush.
#11: Suited King-Queen
This is one of the best poker hands when it comes to flop interaction. Flushes and straights become a possibility, along with some tough top pairs.
#12: Suited Ten-Ace
Again, you have top pair, straight and flush possibilities. There is a slightly larger gap in between the cards, which is why it ranks below suited king-queen.
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