Beginner Starting Hands

• The pairs AA-22.
• The big suited connectors AKs & AQs.
• The big connectors AK & AQ.

The above starting hands suit an inexperienced player; with these hands you can get big wins and you will have easier folding decisions. This strategy requires a very strong discipline, as you will not be involved in many hands. However while playing this way you should observe the game and learn from your opponents and assess their style.

Starting hands and position.

The following starting hand suggestions could be changed a bit according to your style of play. Mixing up your starting hands play would make it harder for your opponents to read you.

Early Position
Raise these: AA, KK, QQ, JJ
Call these: AKs, AQs, KQs, Ajs – for mixing up a bit you can call some lower hands here on a low frequency.

Middle Position
Raise these: AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AKs,
Call these: AQs, KQs, AJs, KJs, TT, AK, ATs, QJs, KTs, QTs, JTs, 99, AQ, KQ, K9s T9s, A8s, Q9s, J9s, AJ, A7s, KJ, A6s, QJ, K8s, 98s,AT, A9, K7s, KT, JT, QT

Late Position
Raise these: AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AKs, AQs, KQs, AJs, KJs, TT
Call these: AK, ATs, QJs, KTs, QTs, JTs, 99, AQ, KQ, , K9s T9s, A8s, Q9s, J9s, AJ, A7s, KJ, A4s, A3 A6s, QJ, K8s, T8s, , 98s, J8s, AT, A9, A8, Q8s, K7s, KT, JT, 87s, QT,88.77,66,55

Note: You should reconsider your decision to enter a pot if there was a raise before you and especially if there was a raise and re-raise action before you.

A word about position and starting hands:
Position is one of the most important aspects of Texas Hold’em. Yet, most people do not even consider it when deciding whether to play a hand, or not. Knowing your position, and its strength or weakness, should affect which hands you play. A weak early position means that you should play only the strongest of hands. A strong late position means that you can play and win with many more hands. Note that mixing up your strategy of starting hands will make it harder to read you. However, you need to know how to fold those hands that looked good before flop and not good after the flop, especially when facing a big bet or raise when you did not hit the flop.

Use of Position

• Example: After the river you hold “A” high, and you check after betting the flop and the turn. Your opponent bets from the button position. He is using his position and bets, knowing that you checked.