Starting Hands, Pre-Flop Game

For the beginner, the most important rule is to strictly go by the Starting Hands List. It is absolutely necessary put it next to your computer so you can check it and act accordingly when evaluating your pre-flop hand! After a while, you will know the list more or less by heart and will not need it anymore.
To understand the list, you have to know the card symbols, know that AQs means Ace Queen suited, JTo means Jack Ten offsuit.
Cap means you raise to the maximum even when you get raises and reraises from your opponents.
Calling two bets after someone raised is “cold calling”. Very important: If somone raises before you act, play only with the so-called “premium hands” AA, KK, QQ, AKs, AQs, AJs, AKo!

The starting hands list decides your pre-flop action for you on the basis of the probability of your hand developping to be the winning hand and the expectation of the potential size of the pot. All hands that are not listed here are trash and must be folded!
It is a mathematical fact, that when you play 100 rounds at a table, you get a playable hand only about 20 times. That means, you call only with app. 20% of your hands. If you play more, you will definitely loose money.
Calling with a hand like J9o may win you a pot every once in a while, but in the long run you will loose money.

There are 3 reasons for this:

After the flop, you will be forced to fold your hand more often than not – your investment is lost
Sometimes after the flop you will have a hand that is mediocre but playable – but your chances are thin. You will get involved in a hand where you take a beating rather often, and that is even more expensive
If you call with a weak hand for one bet, you will get raised often and then you are committed to the pot and have to invest another bet. This will happen more often when your opponents find out that you frequently call with trash hands.

The reasons why certain hands are being raised pre-flop is that they either have a high probability to be the best hand after the flop even when the flop misses them (high pairs like AA, KK, QQ) or that they have more than one chance to develop to the strongest hand (like AKs: double chance to make top pair/top kicker, flush and straight possibilities) or in their high-card strenght (AKo, AQo).

The importance of position for the strenght of your hand cannot be emphasized high enough: a hand like Q9s which you can call with on the button, must be folded in early position!

Make a printout of this list and use it while playing!

*Starting hand*	*Early*	*Middle*	*Late*	*Small Blind*	*Big Blind*
AA, KK, QQ	Cap	Cap	Cap	Cap	Cap
JJ, TT	Raise	Raise	Raise	Raise	Raise
99, 88, 77	Call	Call	Call	Call	Check
66, 55	Call	Call	Call	Call	Check
44, 33, 22	Call	Call	Call	Call	Check

AKs	Cap	Cap	Cap	Cap	Cap
AQs, AJs	Raise	Raise	Raise	Raise	Raise
ATs	Call	Call	Raise	Raise	Raise
A9s, A8s, A7s	Call	Call	Call	Call	Check
A6s - A2s		Call	Call	Call	Check

KQs	Raise	Raise	Raise	Raise	Raise
KJs	Call	Call	Call	Call	Check
KTs	Call	Call	Call	Call	Check
K9s		Call	Call	Call	Check
K8s - K2s			Call	Call	Check

QJs	Call	Call	Call	Call	Check
QTs	Call	Call	Call	Call	Check
Q9s			Call	Call	Check
Q8s - Q2s			Call	Call	Check

JTs	Call	Call	Call	Call	Check
J9s, J8s			Call	Call	Check

T9s, 98s			Call	Call	Check
87s, 76s, 65s, 54s			Call	Call	Check

T8s			Call	Call	Check
97s, 86s, 75s, 64s, 53s			Call	Call	Check


AKo	Cap	Cap	Cap	Cap	Cap
AQo	Raise	Raise	Raise	Raise	Raise
AJo	Call	Raise	Raise	Raise	Raise
ATo		Call	Raise	Raise	Check

KQo	Raise	Raise	Raise	Raise	Raise
KJo			Call	Call	Check
KTo			Call	Call	Check

QJo			Call	Call	Check
QTo			Call	Call	Check
JTo			Call	Call	Check

Starting Hands, Pre-Flop Game

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