In Texas Hold'em you are dealt two cards, and there are 169 different starting hands: 13 pocket pairs, 78 suited hands and 78 offsuit hands, which together make 1,326 possible two-card combinations. The single most important decision you make in a hand is the first one, whether to play at all, and for most of those hands the answer is no.
A starting hands chart turns that decision into a habit. Below is a simple chart by position, how often you will be dealt each group, and the three ideas that explain why it looks the way it does. It is written for No-Limit Hold'em at six- or seven-handed tables like the poker tables on this site. If you need a refresher on the basics first, read how Texas Hold'em works.
Key takeaways
- Play tighter from early seats and wider from late seats. Position is worth more than most cards.
- When nobody has entered the pot, come in with a raise rather than a call.
- The best starting hands, AA to JJ plus AK, arrive only about once every 33 hands.
- Offsuit high cards like KJ and QJ look strong but get dominated. Be careful with them from early seats.
- Suited cards are only a little better than offsuit. Suitedness makes a playable hand better; it does not make a bad hand playable.
The three ideas behind every chart
1. Position
The later you act, the more you know. On the button you see what everyone else did before you decide, and you act last on every street after the flop. From the first seat you decide blind, with everyone still to act behind you. That is why the same hand can be a raise from the button and a fold from under the gun. Our guide to poker position goes deeper.
2. Domination
A hand is dominated when it shares a card with a better hand. KJ against AK or KQ can pair its king and still be behind, and those are exactly the hands that raise from early seats. Domination is why weak aces and offsuit face cards lose so much money: they win small pots and lose big ones.
3. Playability
Some hands are hard to hit but easy to play when they do. Pocket pairs flop a set or better about 11.8% of the time, roughly one in 8.5, and a set is often a huge hand. Suited connectors like 8-7 suited make straights and flushes. Being suited helps, but less than people think: two suited cards make a flush by the river only about 6.4% of the time, and against a random hand, suited is worth only a few percentage points of equity over offsuit.
The starting hands chart
This chart is for when nobody has entered the pot before you. Raise with the hands in your tier and every tier above it; fold the rest. The "s" means suited, "o" offsuit.
| Tier | Hands | Raise first in from |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Premium | AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AKs, AKo | Any seat. Re-raise if someone has already raised. |
| 2. Strong | TT, 99, AQs, AQo, AJs, KQs | Any seat |
| 3. Good | 88, 77, ATs, KJs, QJs, JTs, AJo, KQo | Middle seats and later |
| 4. Speculative | 66 to 22, A9s to A2s, KTs, QTs, J9s, T9s, 98s, 87s | Cutoff and button |
| 5. Steals | ATo, A9o, KJo, KTo, QJo, QTo, JTo, K9s, Q9s, 76s, 65s | Button, and the small blind when everyone has folded to you |
At a seven-handed table, "early" means the first two seats after the big blind, "middle" the next one, then the cutoff (the seat before the button) and the button itself.
How often you get each tier
| Group | Combinations | Share of all hands | About once every |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | 40 | 3.0% | 33 hands |
| Tiers 1–2 | 76 | 5.7% | 17 hands |
| Tiers 1–3 | 128 | 9.7% | 10 hands |
| Tiers 1–4 | 214 | 16.1% | 6 hands |
| Tiers 1–5 | 314 | 23.7% | 4 hands |
So from the first seat you raise about 6% of your hands, and on the button, when it is folded to you, a little under a quarter. A few more useful numbers: any pocket pair comes once every 17 hands, pocket aces once every 221, and ace-king once every 83.
When someone has already raised
A raise in front of you means a stronger range than a random hand, so tighten up:
- Re-raise with tier 1.
- Call with tier 2 and the better tier 3 hands, mainly when you will have position after the flop.
- Fold almost everything else, especially offsuit hands that are easily dominated, such as AJo, KQo and KJo against an early-seat raise.
Small pairs are the classic "call to hit a set" hand, but that only works when the stacks are deep enough to win a big pot when you hit, about 15 to 20 times the call. Tables here start you with up to 1,000 chips against blinds of 10 and 20, which is 50 big blinds. That is shallow enough that calling raises just to hunt for a set is usually too expensive.
The blinds
The big blind has already paid, so it gets a discount to call and can defend wider than any other seat, especially against a steal from the button. The small blind is the worst seat at the table: it acts first on every street after the flop. Play it tight, and prefer raising to calling when you play at all. Poker blinds explained covers the mechanics.
The five most expensive starting-hand mistakes
- Playing too many hands from early seats. Every extra hand you play out of position leaks chips.
- Limping. Calling the big blind invites everyone in and gives up the chance to win the pot right away. If a hand is worth playing first in, it is usually worth a raise.
- Overvaluing offsuit face cards and weak aces. KJo, QJo and A7o are the hands that make second-best pairs.
- Treating every suited hand as playable. 9-3 suited is still 9-3.
- Ignoring the table. Against players who fold too much, steal more. Against players who never fold, bluff less and value-bet more, as our piece on bluffing against bots explains.
After the starting hand
A good starting hand is only the entry ticket. The rest of the hand depends on reading the board and pricing your decisions: hand rankings, pot odds, check, call, bet and raise, and the short all-in rule all come next.
For the full method, the Poker series of the strategy playbooks has three parts. Poker Signal is a strategic guide to smarter decisions and stronger sessions. Poker Edge Playbook covers bankroll, tilt and table selection. From Loose to Elite is a workbook of twelve common leaks, twelve fixes and a 30-day plan.
The best way to make a chart automatic is to use it. The No-Limit Hold'em tables here are free, played with play chips against bots and other players, so you can practise folding the hands you used to play without it costing anything.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best starting hand in Texas Hold'em?
Pocket aces. Against one random hand, AA wins about 85% of the time. It is still only a pair, though, and it can lose, especially in multi-way pots.
How many hands should a beginner play?
Fewer than you think. Following the chart above, you would raise roughly 6% of hands from the earliest seat and up to about a quarter on the button when it is folded to you. Most beginners play far more than that.
Are suited connectors good hands?
They are good hands in the right spot: late position, against a few opponents, with deep enough stacks. They are poor hands from early position or when you have to call big raises.
Should I always raise with pocket aces?
Yes, before the flop. Slow-playing aces lets more players in cheaply, and every extra opponent reduces the chance that your aces hold up.
Does the chart work in tournaments?
The ideas do, but stack sizes change the details. As stacks get shorter, speculative hands lose value and high cards and pairs gain it.
