Good Starting Hands

This is a starting hands chart that you can use to determine what 2 hole cards are good enough to call a bet and see the flop. Although there is no such thing as a perfect starting hands chart because there is no one chart that is absolutely right for every situation, if you use this chart as a beginning guideline as to which hands are good enough to see a flop you will immediately have a big advantage over those players at your table who are playing for fun and who believe that he should be seeing every flop regardless of the strength of his starting hand. You don’t need to memorize this starting hands chart. You just need to become very familiar with the concepts of different starting hands at different table positions. Even when you become a very good poker player you probably won’t be playing more than 15% of the hands in a 10 person game. Patience is not only one of the keys to your success, but it is the downfall of your competition when they don’t have patience to wait for good starting hands in favorable situations.

STARTING HAND TO PLAY IN EARLY POSITION

Pairs in the Hole: Aces through Sevens

Suited Hole Cards:
Ace with a King, Queen, Jack, or 10
King with a Queen, Jack, or 10
Queen with a Jack or 10
Jack with a 10 or 9
10 with a 9

Unsuited Hole Cards:
Aces with a King, Queen, Jack, or 10
King with a Queen or Jack

STARTING HAND TO PLAY IN MIDDLE POSITION

All hands in Early Position and:

Pairs in the Hole:
Sixes and Fives

Suited Hole Cards:
Ace with a 9, 8, 7, or 6
King with a 9
Queen with a 9 or 8
Jack with an 8
10 with an 8
9 with an 8

Unsuited Hole Cards:
King with a 10
Queen with a Jack or 10
Jack with a 10

STARTING HAND TO PLAY IN LATE POSITION

All hands in Early and Middle Position and:

Pairs in the Hole:
Fours, Threes, and Twos

Suited Hole Cards:
Ace with a 5, 4, 3, or 2
King with an 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2
Jack with a 7
10 with a 7
9 with a 7 or 6
8 with a 7 or 6
7 with a 6 or 5
6 with a 5
5 with a 4

Unsuited Hole Cards:
King with a 9
Queen with a 9
Jack with a 9 or 8
10 with a 9 or 8
9 with an 8 or 7
8 with a 7

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Heads Up Strategy and Odds Chart

Learning to play Heads Up will make you a much better poker player. Many of the very successful cash players playing online poker on Broadway Tables have found that some of the easiest games to win are Heads Up. More important, becoming a better Heads Up player will help you tremendously when you reach the final table of a big tournament and are playing Heads Up against one other player.

The best Heads Up players play aggressive and loose. Heads Up is a game of bluff and nerve. You can easily put your opponent on tilt by being first to bet and making him make hard decisions about what kind of hand he thinks you have. After you have your Heads Up opponent scared, he will be folding hands even when he knows you don’t have a big hand.

Whether you decide to play Heads Up on RailPoker to become a consistently winning poker player or whether you want to become a good Heads Up player so that you will be successful when it is you against just one other player in a tournament, learning to be a good Heads Up player will help you claim your share of the money that is being won every day at RailPoker.

Why should you play loose and aggressive in Heads Up?

Unlike playing at a table with 6 or more players, it is quite common for neither player in a Heads Up match to even pair the board with any of the board cards. Many times a high card will be the best hand so you will find yourself winning hands you would never have considered playing in at a table where there are 6 or more players. Because of this, loose and aggressive play is necessary to win all of your opponent’s chips.

Playing winning Heads Up requires that you oftentimes steal your opponent’s blinds. You should not always raise pre-flop to steal blinds, but you need to raise often especially against a tight player. Not only will you be putting your opponent’s blind money in your chip stack, but you will be denying him cheap hands where he would have seen very good flops.

Heads Up Odds Chart

The table below shows the odds of winning with each of the starting hands in Heads Up. Your starting hand is the combination of the card on the left of the chart and the card at the top of the chart. For example, the top card on the left side of the chart is an Ace and the first card on the top of the chart is a 2. Therefore your hand is an Ace/2. Your percentage of winning the hand appears in the chart where your Ace and 2 meet so that if you are dealt an Ace/2 your odds of winning the hand are 55%.

	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	J	Q	K	A
A	55	56	56	58	58	59	60	61	63	64	64	65	85
K	50	51	52	53	54	55	56	58	60	61	61	82
Q	47	48	49	50	51	52	56	57	58	60	80
J	44	45	46	47	48	50	52	53	55	78
10	42	42	43	44	46	48	50	52	75
9	39	40	41	43	45	47	48	72
8	37	40	40	42	44	46	69
7	35	37	38	41	43	66
6	34	36	38	40	63
5	34	36	38	60
4	33	34	57
3	31	54
2	50

Successful Heads Up Strategy

Like all poker games, once you have a basic understanding of the game, the best way to learn and become better is to actually play and think about your play afterwards. Heads Up is a great way to make continual money playing poker because most of your opponents will not realize that playing Heads Up is much different than playing at a table with 6 or more players. Those opponents who don’t understand the difference between playing Heads Up and playing at tables with 6 or more players will usually play extremely tight poker and because of that they will not give themselves enough chances to see flops and good hands. You, on the other hand, will be playing a lot of hands, seeing a lot of flops, stealing a lot of blinds and ultimately taking all of your opponent’s chips.