What are the best starting hands in poker?

No Limit Holdem / Marcus Bateman / 21 June 2010 / Leave a Comment

There is no simple answer to this question, and it in fact constitutes the very thing that makes poker such a complex and interesting game. Although poker is fundamentally a game built around a simple chart of hands that goes from weak to strong, in it's playing it actually constitutes a constant analysis of relative hand strength. I'll try to elaborate on quite what a difference this is and why it is important to understand it below.

Take a very strong hand in Hold'em such as pocket kings. The second best starting hand, you need an extremely good reason to ever fold it pre flop. However, most of the time in poker pre flop is not the only part of the hand, and in order to get to showdown, you have the obstacle course that is the flop, turn, and river to negotiate. Here life becomes much harder for your hand if things start to look a bit shady.

Say you raise red kings pre flop and get two callers from the blinds and see a board of 6c7c9s. The small blind bets, and the big blind raises. Although you still have the same big pair as before, the relative strength of your hand has just declined dramatically. You are looking at a highly connected board, with a flush draw, a possible flopped straight and a one card straight draw, as well as a board that gives many defending hands two pair or a set. Not only this, but the small blind has bet, and the big blind has raised. This and the board texture is an incredibly dangerous combination - one that makes it extremely unlikely your hand is ahead.

This point about the relativity of strength can also make a huge difference to the monster hands of poker. Take a hand such as a full house. A full house is one of the strongest hands in poker, and one which is usually good to get as much of your stack in as possible with - but sometimes not is all as it seems sometimes with this 'strong' hand.

Imagine you face the same situation as before, only you raise king queen of hearts, get the same two callers from the blinds and see a flop of AcKsKd. Both blinds check call a bet from you. The turn is the Ad. Although this card gives you a full house, it is actually one of the worst cards in the deck for you, as it most likely gives at least one of your opponents a better full house. Although your hand has improved massively in terms of its actual strength, its relative strength has just collapsed so much that you have gone from being willing to go all in with three of a kind, all the way to wanting to not put another bet in with a full house - despite a full house clearly being a much stronger hand on paper than three of a kind.

Relative strength is what poker is all about. Sometimes weak hands are ahead, and sometimes strong hands are behind - the key is in working out when and why this is the case and having the heart to go with your choices - and that is where real poker strength lies.