Poker Starting Hand Strength Chart

• Poker Starting Hand Strength Chart Pokemon
• Poker Starting Hand Strength Chart Vs
• Poker Starting Hand Strength Charts
• Poker Starting Hand Strength Chart For Men

Now that you understand the position concept we are going to expand on that by looking at the subject of which starting hands to play and which to throw in the muck.

While the chart above gives you a general outline of the best starting hands in Omaha Hi Lo, you do need to realize that it is still quite broad as the ‘x' represents nearly any other card. Texas Holdem Heads-Up Preflop Odds. This table was created by enumerating through every possible board and opponent hole card combination for each of the 169 texas holdem preflop starting hands. In poker you want to be wary about becoming too reliant on those pretty starting hand charts. They can be great for indicating which hands might be worth playing (and which should be thrown away.

This is the area where inexperienced players become fish, simply by not having the ability to fold weak hands before the flop. You can save a lot of money at this stage of the hand just by simply choosing not to play.

The Importance of Starting Hand Selection

As you know Poker is a game of maths and probability. It is therefore possible to know which starting hands are most probable to win a hand and this has been statistically proven in many studies. These studies have been able to rank starting hands according to how likely they are to win the hand against a random selection of opponent's starting hands.

Starting hand

By Starting Hand we mean the two hole cards which are dealt to you at the start of each hand.

Since we now know which are the best starting hands in poker then we can apply this knowledge to our strategy. Remember, when we play a hand, we want to play with the odds in our favour, and by selectively choosing which starting hands we play we can ensure this.

Of course if we just waited for the two or three best poker starting hands then we wouldn't actually play many hands as the probability of these cards being dealt is only once in a while.

So we combine the position concept with our starting hand concept, to allow us to only play a narrow starting hand selection when out of position and to play a wider range of starting hands when we are in position. Therefore the benefit of playing in position makes up for the weaker starting hands we may play.

Starting Hand Groups

You could look at all the statistical information and studies, but we've taken all the work out of it for you. The following section is a key part of your strategy and you should practise choosing the right action before the flop using the poker starting hands chart below.

We have chosen 46 different hands that we will play depending on the position and situation we are in. Those 46 hands have been separated into 8 groups named Group A to H. Group A are the strongest hands in poker based on the statistics and group H are the weakest hands that we are willing to play. Of course there are many more hand combinations weaker than the hands in Group H, but we are not interested in playing with these and they will be folded into the muck straight away.

Group B

AK

QQ

Group D

AQs

AQ

AJs

99

88

Group F

AT

KQ

KJs

QJs

44

33

22

Group H

KJ

KT

QJ

J8s

T8s

87s

76s

The ‘s' next to some of the hands stands for Suited, so two cards of the same suit. ‘AJs' could stand for A J whereas ‘AJ' could stand for A J

Take a minute just to browse the hands in each group, you don't need to memorise these, as you can use the chart to refer to, and once you have used it for a while, you will start to remember which hands are in which groups.

Poker Starting Hand Charts

Ok, so now we have our selection of 46 hands, and have split them into 8 groups based on strength, now what? Well we won't just automatically play any of those 46 hands when they are dealt to us, we will make a decision based on the position we are in, and the situation we are faced with at the table.

When we are in position we will play a wider range of groups and out of position we will only play the stronger groups. Similarly when opponents have shown strength at the table by raising we will only play the better cards against them.

There are three charts, UNRAISED, RAISED and BLINDS. These are our Action charts, and show us what action to take when we have a hand in one of the starting hand groups.

The three charts are:

• UNRAISED – When everybody acting before you has either folded or called the big blind.
• RAISED – When somebody acting before you has raised.
• BLINDS – When you are in either the small blind or the big blind position and somebody acting before you has raised

To use the charts, just follow these steps:

1. What group is your starting hand in? if it isn't in any group then you Fold.
2. What Situation are you in? Choose one of the three action charts relevant to the situation you are in.
3. What Position are you in? Look at the column in the chart for the position you are in.
4. Starting Hand Group not shown? If your starting hand group is not shown in that column, then you Fold.
5. Starting Hand Group Shown? If your starting hand group letter is shown then take the action the chart is showing you.

The different actions in each of the charts are:

• Opening Raise – Make the first Raise
• Call – Just Call when a person has Raised
• Re-Raise – Re-Raise a person who has Raised
• Call a Re-Raise – Call when someone Re-Raises your original Raise
• Raise a Re-Raise – Re-Raise when somebody has Re-Raised your original Raise
• Call the Big Blind – Just call the big blind amount (also known as ‘limping in')

Quick Reference

I don't expect you to memorise all the starting hand groups and action charts. The way to learn them is by putting them into practise and then over time you will start to memorise them. But to start with, you can refer to the charts while you are playing.

You can either just bookmark and pull this page up each time you play or we have a couple of other methods to make your life a bit easier.

Printable Starting Hands Chart

A neat and tidy, A4 size starting hand chart which you can print and keep in front of you for quick reference while you are playing.

To download the Starting Hands Chart right click on the link and select save target as.

It is a PDF file, so to view and print this you will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you don't have this you can download it here.

Starting Hands Chart Desktop Wallpaper

Use this as your computer desktop wallpaper. It is designed so that whilst you are playing poker, you can place your poker table window over the Poker Professor logo and all the charts will be visible around the table. Neat huh!

To download the Starting Hands Wallpaper right click on the link and select save target as.

To set as your desktop wallpaper, right click on the file you have just downloaded and select 'Set As Desktop Background'.

The wallpaper is optimised for a desktop screen size of 1920×1080 as this is the most common. It should work with most other desktop sizes as well as windows should automatically resize it for you.

Starting Hand Examples

Lets take a look at some example starting hands and walk through what the charts are telling you to do and what thought process to follow.

Example Hand 1

You are sitting in early position and are dealt A J. You are first to act and so nobody has bet before you.

• What group is my hand in – AJ is a Group E hand
• What situation am I in – Nobody has raised before me so UNRAISED
• What position am I in – Early Position

So from the answers to the above questions we look at the UNRAISED Action chart, and look in the column for Early Position. You will see that Group E is not shown in that column so we are not allowed to play a Group E hand in Early position in this situation and so we would fold this hand.

Example Hand 2

You are sitting in early position and are dealt A K. You are first to act and so nobody has bet before you.

• What group is my hand in – AK is a Group B hand
• What situation am I in – I am first to act so it is UNRAISED
• What position am I in – Early Position

So from the above we look at the UNRAISED Action chart, and look in the column for Early Position. You will see that with a group B hand we are told to make an opening raise. So we would enter the hand by making a Raise (We will look at details of how much to raise later in the lesson).

Example Hand 3

You are sitting in Mid Position and are dealt A A. A Player in early position has raised the pot up to 3 times the Big Blind.

• What group is my hand in – AA is the best starting hand and therefore a Group A hand
• What situation am I in – There has been a raise by a player in early position, so it has been RAISED
• What position am I in – Mid Position

So, we look at the RAISED Action chart, and look in the column for Mid Position. You will see that with a group A hand we are told to make a Re-Raise. So we would enter the hand by making a Re-Raise. (We will look at details of how much to raise later in the lesson)

Example Hand 4

You are sitting in Mid Position and are dealt 9 9. A Player in early position has raised the pot up to 3 times the Big Blind.

• What group is my hand in – 99 is a Group D hand
• What situation am I in – There has been a raise by a player in early position, so it has been RAISED
• What position am I in – Mid Position

So, again we look at the RAISED Action chart, and look in the column for Mid Position. You will see that we are not allowed to play an already RAISED pot in Mid Position with a group D hand. So we fold this hand.

Example Hand 5

You are sitting in Late Position and are dealt 8 7. Two Players acting before you have limped in and called the big blind.

• What group is my hand in – 87s is a Group H hand
• What situation am I in – There has been two limpers, but no raise, so it is UNRAISED
• What position am I in – Late Position

So, we look at the UNRAISED Action chart, and look in the column for Late Position. You will see that we are allowed to Call a Multi-way pot with a group H hand (multiple players playing the hand). As two people have already called and the blinds will likely also call we can call the big blind and play the hand. So we would call the big blind on this hand.

How much should I Raise?

An opening Raise in general should be between 3 to 4 times the Big Blind. Anywhere in this range is ok, and as guide to start with I would raise the following amounts:

• When you are in EARLY POSITION Raise 4 times the Big Blind
• When you are in MID POSITION Raise 3.5 times the Big Blind
• When you are in LATE POSITION Raise 3 times the Big Blind

You should mix and match the size of your raises to prevent your opponents getting a read on your betting patterns, but the above can act as a general guide whilst you get used to your new strategy.

The reason to Raise more in Early position is because we are out of position and want to put as much pressure on our opponents as we can.

How much should I Re-Raise?

A Re-Raise should in general be between 2 – 4 times the original Raise, As a guide:

• When it has been Raised from EARLY POSITION Raise 2 times the Raise
• When it has been Raised from MID POSITION Raise 3 times the Raise
• When it has been Raised from LATE POSITION Raise 4 times the Raise

The reason for this is it is more likely that a player in late position has raised with a weaker hand than a player in Early position.

Practise Time

Well, that was a lengthy lesson and a lot to take in. Don't worry, with practise it will start to become second nature, and that is exactly what you should do now with the first stage of your bankroll challenge.

Poker Bankroll Challenge: Stage 1

• Stakes: $0.02/$0.04
• Buy In: $3 (75 x BB)
• Starting Bankroll: $25
• Target: $3 (1 x Buy In)
• Finishing Bankroll: $28
• Estimated Sessions: 1

Use this exercise to get used to selecting which starting hands to play and which not to play according to the Starting Hands chart and get used to understanding what position you are in at the table. Don't get too carried away at this stage though, play conservatively and be aware that someone may have a better hand than you. We are going to learn in more detail about betting after the flop later in the course.

Knowing what beats what in poker or Texas Hold'em is an important early step in learning the game. To help you out, I have provided for you an attractive printable or downloadable 'cheat sheet' for both 5 card hand rankings as well as top 24 pre-flop starting hands.

Poker hands ranked from best to worst:

1. Royal Flush
2. Straight Flush
3. Four of a Kind
4. Full House
5. Flush
6. Straight
7. Three of a Kind
8. Two Pair
9. One Pair
10. High Card

To make things easier on you, I have included some handy charts that can be used to reference during play or even printed out.

Poker Hand Rankings Chart

Never forget what beats what again. Feel free to save this to your phone/tablet/computer or print the chart out.

Click below to download a high-quality PDF that includes a printable copy of both the showdown and pre-flop hand rankings.

The Top 24 Hold'Em Starting Hand Rankings

To help you out, I have also included the top 24 no-limit hold'em starting hands to give you a further idea of what beats what in poker. I based this list on both raw equities as well as post-flop playability.

I have used over 10 years of experience in both tournaments and cash games to compile this info. You get to benefit from my hard work!

How These Hands Were Determined

I took a look at a few of the pre-flop hand ranking charts out there and, while most appeared to get it right for the most part, there seemed to be something off.

The thing is, everyone always does pretty well on the top 5 or 6 hands. However, after that things get a bit murkier.

So, what really matters when it comes to weighing hand strength? I decided to take a close look at the problem. Using the knowledge I've gained over the past few years, I tried to come up with a better way of codifying hand rankings.

Determining the Overall Playability of Each Hand

I decided to go about it from a logical standpoint. When deciding whether to play a hand or not, what are the factors a strong player considers before acting?

So, I decided that there are basically two main factors to consider in determining the strength of a particular pre-flop hand. And, since equity is the tool we use to rank the value of hands I just had to figure out what type of equities matter most and then apply it to each factor.

Once I was able to define which equities to consider, it just took a bit of math.

The first equity I decided to factor in is a hand's raw pre-flop equity. I mean, sometimes you need to get all-in before the flop, right?

Of course, some hands will get all-in more frequently than others but for the sake of simplicity, raw equity against a strong range will give us a decent enough metric to come up with a comparative ranking.

Secondly, we need to factor in how a hand does post-flop. There's no doubt, that certain hands play much better after the flop than others.

To calculate how well a hand does after the flop I looked at what post-flop hands tend to get all-in most of the time in a post-flop scenario. This includes the strongest made hands, including top pair and better, as well as strong draws.

Once I was able to figure out what hands are likely to get all-in, I just had to figure out the equity of every hand versus that range on a random flop.

Compiling the Final List

Doing these kinds of calculations by hand would be extremely difficult and time-consuming. Luckily, there is a software program called Cardrunner's EV that does the math for me.

After I figured out both the raw pre-flop equity and the likely flop equity of each hand, I just used excel to average them. That data was used to compile the rankings.

Here are the final equity percentages:

Which Poker Starting Hand Ranges Should I Use?

Knowing which hands to open raise is important to your success. Don't worry, I've got you covered.

Free Basic Poker Strategy Charts

I have built charts that provide you profitable opening ranges from every position. As a bonus, the charts also include what to do at every decision point possible for playing a 20 to 40 big blind stack.

Just provide the following info, subscribe to my spam-free newsletter, and I will email you the charts along with the comprehensive 10-page strategy guide for free!

The guide will give you an excellent starting point for playing No-Limit Texas Hold'em and will get you off on the right foot by allowing you to play fundamentally sound poker right now!

FAQ

What if my opponent and I have the same hand at showdown?

If more than one player has the same hand then you have to follow the tie-breaker rules to determine the winner.

If two or more players have a flush or straight

In the case where two players have a flush or straight, the person who has the highest card in their hand wins. For example, T9876 beats 76543.

If two or more players have a full house

Poker Starting Hand Strength Chart Pokemon

In the case of multiple full houses, the player with the highest 'trips' as part of their full house wins. For example, TTT22 beats 555AA.

What if two or more players have the same pair or two pair?

Poker Starting Hand Strength Chart Vs

If multiple players have exactly the same two pair, the highest kicker is used to determine the winner. For example, JJ66Q beats JJ66T.

The same process is used for one-pair. The next highest kicker is used. If that is the same, you use the next highest kicker. So on and so forth until the tie is broken. For example, AAK85 beats AAK84.

Who wins if more than one person has the same high card?

Similarly to one pair and two-pair hands, you use the next highest kicker to determine the winner. You keep moving on to the next kicker until a winner is determined. For example, KT763 beats KT753.

Which is better, trips or two-pair?

Three of a kind beats two-pair. It also beats a pair and high card.

Which is better, a flush or a straight?

A flush beats a straight. It also beats three of a kind, two pair, a pair, and high card.

AJs

99

88

Group F

AT

KQ

KJs

QJs

44

33

22

Group H

KJ

KT

QJ

J8s

T8s

87s

76s

The ‘s' next to some of the hands stands for Suited, so two cards of the same suit. ‘AJs' could stand for A J whereas ‘AJ' could stand for A J

Take a minute just to browse the hands in each group, you don't need to memorise these, as you can use the chart to refer to, and once you have used it for a while, you will start to remember which hands are in which groups.

Poker Starting Hand Charts

Ok, so now we have our selection of 46 hands, and have split them into 8 groups based on strength, now what? Well we won't just automatically play any of those 46 hands when they are dealt to us, we will make a decision based on the position we are in, and the situation we are faced with at the table.

When we are in position we will play a wider range of groups and out of position we will only play the stronger groups. Similarly when opponents have shown strength at the table by raising we will only play the better cards against them.

There are three charts, UNRAISED, RAISED and BLINDS. These are our Action charts, and show us what action to take when we have a hand in one of the starting hand groups.

The three charts are:

• UNRAISED – When everybody acting before you has either folded or called the big blind.
• RAISED – When somebody acting before you has raised.
• BLINDS – When you are in either the small blind or the big blind position and somebody acting before you has raised

To use the charts, just follow these steps:

1. What group is your starting hand in? if it isn't in any group then you Fold.
2. What Situation are you in? Choose one of the three action charts relevant to the situation you are in.
3. What Position are you in? Look at the column in the chart for the position you are in.
4. Starting Hand Group not shown? If your starting hand group is not shown in that column, then you Fold.
5. Starting Hand Group Shown? If your starting hand group letter is shown then take the action the chart is showing you.

The different actions in each of the charts are:

• Opening Raise – Make the first Raise
• Call – Just Call when a person has Raised
• Re-Raise – Re-Raise a person who has Raised
• Call a Re-Raise – Call when someone Re-Raises your original Raise
• Raise a Re-Raise – Re-Raise when somebody has Re-Raised your original Raise
• Call the Big Blind – Just call the big blind amount (also known as ‘limping in')

Quick Reference

I don't expect you to memorise all the starting hand groups and action charts. The way to learn them is by putting them into practise and then over time you will start to memorise them. But to start with, you can refer to the charts while you are playing.

You can either just bookmark and pull this page up each time you play or we have a couple of other methods to make your life a bit easier.

Printable Starting Hands Chart

A neat and tidy, A4 size starting hand chart which you can print and keep in front of you for quick reference while you are playing.

To download the Starting Hands Chart right click on the link and select save target as.

It is a PDF file, so to view and print this you will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you don't have this you can download it here.

Starting Hands Chart Desktop Wallpaper

Use this as your computer desktop wallpaper. It is designed so that whilst you are playing poker, you can place your poker table window over the Poker Professor logo and all the charts will be visible around the table. Neat huh!

To download the Starting Hands Wallpaper right click on the link and select save target as.

To set as your desktop wallpaper, right click on the file you have just downloaded and select 'Set As Desktop Background'.

The wallpaper is optimised for a desktop screen size of 1920×1080 as this is the most common. It should work with most other desktop sizes as well as windows should automatically resize it for you.

Starting Hand Examples

Lets take a look at some example starting hands and walk through what the charts are telling you to do and what thought process to follow.

Example Hand 1

You are sitting in early position and are dealt A J. You are first to act and so nobody has bet before you.

• What group is my hand in – AJ is a Group E hand
• What situation am I in – Nobody has raised before me so UNRAISED
• What position am I in – Early Position

So from the answers to the above questions we look at the UNRAISED Action chart, and look in the column for Early Position. You will see that Group E is not shown in that column so we are not allowed to play a Group E hand in Early position in this situation and so we would fold this hand.

Example Hand 2

You are sitting in early position and are dealt A K. You are first to act and so nobody has bet before you.

• What group is my hand in – AK is a Group B hand
• What situation am I in – I am first to act so it is UNRAISED
• What position am I in – Early Position

So from the above we look at the UNRAISED Action chart, and look in the column for Early Position. You will see that with a group B hand we are told to make an opening raise. So we would enter the hand by making a Raise (We will look at details of how much to raise later in the lesson).

Example Hand 3

You are sitting in Mid Position and are dealt A A. A Player in early position has raised the pot up to 3 times the Big Blind.

• What group is my hand in – AA is the best starting hand and therefore a Group A hand
• What situation am I in – There has been a raise by a player in early position, so it has been RAISED
• What position am I in – Mid Position

So, we look at the RAISED Action chart, and look in the column for Mid Position. You will see that with a group A hand we are told to make a Re-Raise. So we would enter the hand by making a Re-Raise. (We will look at details of how much to raise later in the lesson)

Example Hand 4

You are sitting in Mid Position and are dealt 9 9. A Player in early position has raised the pot up to 3 times the Big Blind.

• What group is my hand in – 99 is a Group D hand
• What situation am I in – There has been a raise by a player in early position, so it has been RAISED
• What position am I in – Mid Position

So, again we look at the RAISED Action chart, and look in the column for Mid Position. You will see that we are not allowed to play an already RAISED pot in Mid Position with a group D hand. So we fold this hand.

Example Hand 5

You are sitting in Late Position and are dealt 8 7. Two Players acting before you have limped in and called the big blind.

• What group is my hand in – 87s is a Group H hand
• What situation am I in – There has been two limpers, but no raise, so it is UNRAISED
• What position am I in – Late Position

So, we look at the UNRAISED Action chart, and look in the column for Late Position. You will see that we are allowed to Call a Multi-way pot with a group H hand (multiple players playing the hand). As two people have already called and the blinds will likely also call we can call the big blind and play the hand. So we would call the big blind on this hand.

How much should I Raise?

An opening Raise in general should be between 3 to 4 times the Big Blind. Anywhere in this range is ok, and as guide to start with I would raise the following amounts:

• When you are in EARLY POSITION Raise 4 times the Big Blind
• When you are in MID POSITION Raise 3.5 times the Big Blind
• When you are in LATE POSITION Raise 3 times the Big Blind

You should mix and match the size of your raises to prevent your opponents getting a read on your betting patterns, but the above can act as a general guide whilst you get used to your new strategy.

The reason to Raise more in Early position is because we are out of position and want to put as much pressure on our opponents as we can.

How much should I Re-Raise?

A Re-Raise should in general be between 2 – 4 times the original Raise, As a guide:

• When it has been Raised from EARLY POSITION Raise 2 times the Raise
• When it has been Raised from MID POSITION Raise 3 times the Raise
• When it has been Raised from LATE POSITION Raise 4 times the Raise

The reason for this is it is more likely that a player in late position has raised with a weaker hand than a player in Early position.

Practise Time

Well, that was a lengthy lesson and a lot to take in. Don't worry, with practise it will start to become second nature, and that is exactly what you should do now with the first stage of your bankroll challenge.

Poker Bankroll Challenge: Stage 1

• Stakes: $0.02/$0.04
• Buy In: $3 (75 x BB)
• Starting Bankroll: $25
• Target: $3 (1 x Buy In)
• Finishing Bankroll: $28
• Estimated Sessions: 1

Use this exercise to get used to selecting which starting hands to play and which not to play according to the Starting Hands chart and get used to understanding what position you are in at the table. Don't get too carried away at this stage though, play conservatively and be aware that someone may have a better hand than you. We are going to learn in more detail about betting after the flop later in the course.

Knowing what beats what in poker or Texas Hold'em is an important early step in learning the game. To help you out, I have provided for you an attractive printable or downloadable 'cheat sheet' for both 5 card hand rankings as well as top 24 pre-flop starting hands.

Poker hands ranked from best to worst:

1. Royal Flush
2. Straight Flush
3. Four of a Kind
4. Full House
5. Flush
6. Straight
7. Three of a Kind
8. Two Pair
9. One Pair
10. High Card

To make things easier on you, I have included some handy charts that can be used to reference during play or even printed out.

Poker Hand Rankings Chart

Never forget what beats what again. Feel free to save this to your phone/tablet/computer or print the chart out.

Click below to download a high-quality PDF that includes a printable copy of both the showdown and pre-flop hand rankings.

The Top 24 Hold'Em Starting Hand Rankings

To help you out, I have also included the top 24 no-limit hold'em starting hands to give you a further idea of what beats what in poker. I based this list on both raw equities as well as post-flop playability.

I have used over 10 years of experience in both tournaments and cash games to compile this info. You get to benefit from my hard work!

How These Hands Were Determined

I took a look at a few of the pre-flop hand ranking charts out there and, while most appeared to get it right for the most part, there seemed to be something off.

The thing is, everyone always does pretty well on the top 5 or 6 hands. However, after that things get a bit murkier.

So, what really matters when it comes to weighing hand strength? I decided to take a close look at the problem. Using the knowledge I've gained over the past few years, I tried to come up with a better way of codifying hand rankings.

Determining the Overall Playability of Each Hand

I decided to go about it from a logical standpoint. When deciding whether to play a hand or not, what are the factors a strong player considers before acting?

So, I decided that there are basically two main factors to consider in determining the strength of a particular pre-flop hand. And, since equity is the tool we use to rank the value of hands I just had to figure out what type of equities matter most and then apply it to each factor.

Once I was able to define which equities to consider, it just took a bit of math.

The first equity I decided to factor in is a hand's raw pre-flop equity. I mean, sometimes you need to get all-in before the flop, right?

Of course, some hands will get all-in more frequently than others but for the sake of simplicity, raw equity against a strong range will give us a decent enough metric to come up with a comparative ranking.

Secondly, we need to factor in how a hand does post-flop. There's no doubt, that certain hands play much better after the flop than others.

To calculate how well a hand does after the flop I looked at what post-flop hands tend to get all-in most of the time in a post-flop scenario. This includes the strongest made hands, including top pair and better, as well as strong draws.

Once I was able to figure out what hands are likely to get all-in, I just had to figure out the equity of every hand versus that range on a random flop.

Compiling the Final List

Doing these kinds of calculations by hand would be extremely difficult and time-consuming. Luckily, there is a software program called Cardrunner's EV that does the math for me.

After I figured out both the raw pre-flop equity and the likely flop equity of each hand, I just used excel to average them. That data was used to compile the rankings.

Here are the final equity percentages:

Which Poker Starting Hand Ranges Should I Use?

Knowing which hands to open raise is important to your success. Don't worry, I've got you covered.

Free Basic Poker Strategy Charts

I have built charts that provide you profitable opening ranges from every position. As a bonus, the charts also include what to do at every decision point possible for playing a 20 to 40 big blind stack.

Just provide the following info, subscribe to my spam-free newsletter, and I will email you the charts along with the comprehensive 10-page strategy guide for free!

The guide will give you an excellent starting point for playing No-Limit Texas Hold'em and will get you off on the right foot by allowing you to play fundamentally sound poker right now!

FAQ

What if my opponent and I have the same hand at showdown?

If more than one player has the same hand then you have to follow the tie-breaker rules to determine the winner.

If two or more players have a flush or straight

In the case where two players have a flush or straight, the person who has the highest card in their hand wins. For example, T9876 beats 76543.

If two or more players have a full house

Poker Starting Hand Strength Chart Pokemon

In the case of multiple full houses, the player with the highest 'trips' as part of their full house wins. For example, TTT22 beats 555AA.

What if two or more players have the same pair or two pair?

Poker Starting Hand Strength Chart Vs

If multiple players have exactly the same two pair, the highest kicker is used to determine the winner. For example, JJ66Q beats JJ66T.

The same process is used for one-pair. The next highest kicker is used. If that is the same, you use the next highest kicker. So on and so forth until the tie is broken. For example, AAK85 beats AAK84.

Who wins if more than one person has the same high card?

Similarly to one pair and two-pair hands, you use the next highest kicker to determine the winner. You keep moving on to the next kicker until a winner is determined. For example, KT763 beats KT753.

Which is better, trips or two-pair?

Three of a kind beats two-pair. It also beats a pair and high card.

Which is better, a flush or a straight?

A flush beats a straight. It also beats three of a kind, two pair, a pair, and high card.

What is the worst hand in poker?

The worst hand against multiple players is 72 offsuit. The worst hand heads-up is 32o.

Poker Starting Hand Strength Charts

What are the odds of getting a Royal Flush in Texas Hold'em?

A royal flush is extremely rare. You can only expect to get a royal flush once every 650,000 hands. That doesn't mean it's guaranteed. Personally, I have played well over 5 million hands and have only had one royal using both cards.

Final Thoughts

Poker Starting Hand Strength Chart For Men

I hope this article has helped you learn more about how hand rankings work in poker. If you want to learn about basic poker strategy, be sure to check out my detailed no-limit hold'em basic tutorial.