What Are Premium Poker Hands

May 01, 2018 Premium Starting Hands It’s your turn to bet and now you’re wondering if your hand is strong enough to justify a call or raise, or maybe you should fold? Below are the generally accepted, top ten starting hole card hands in Texas Hold’em poker. They are considered premium hole cards and are potential hand-winning cards. Poker hands from highest to lowest 1. Royal flush A, K, Q, J, 10, all the same suit. Straight flush Five cards in a sequence, all in the same suit. When someone talks about premium hands in poker, they’re referring to the strongest preflop hands - the best-of-the-best, if you will. In No-Limit Hold’em,there are 169 distinct starting hands. They include 13 different pocket pairs ranging from deuces up to aces, plus 78 suited hands and 78 unsuited hands. Any hand that has a score over 80 is a premium hand and anything over about 65 are very strong hands. That’s what these poker hand percentages are all about: telling you which hands to play pre-flop before you have any other information. The numbers tell you they’re good hands because they simple win more often than others on average.

Whether you’re an intermediate poker player looking to fine-tune your gameplay or a complete poker novice, understanding how to play the best starting hands is crucial to winning long-term at the tables. A solid starting hand selection is one of the fundamental building blocks of any winning poker strategy. The good news is it’s not rocket science either. It’s a case of playing the best possible hands at your disposal and folding the ones that aren’t so good.

The Top 2 Percent of Starting Hands

It’s a good idea to break the starting hands down into different phases. Phase one is the top 2 percent of starting hands, which are those that can provide you with significant leverage pre-flop. Such include cards like the AA, KK, QQ and a suited AK. The latter is considered equally as valuable as pairs of aces, kings and queens because this makes it more likely for you to land a flush — and the best possible flush at that.

Professional poker player Isabelle “No Mercy” Mercier has recently started a series of articles offering guidance on how to extract the most value from premium poker hands as possible in both short-handed and full-ring play. Mercier believes that the top 2 percent of starting hands are quite strong in short-handed games and that it’s critical to extract the maximum amount of value from these hands as possible. Beginner players will often be too scared to raise as they don’t want to put opponents off and make them fold, missing out on a sizable pot.

However, this doesn’t make sense for two reasons. Firstly, if opponents always muck their hands each time you bet or raise, it’s because you’re deemed a tight player and aren’t raising enough using other hands. Secondly, if you let too many players into a hand, your premium AA hand could easily be outdrawn by a small pocket pair if it hits three-of-a-kind on the flop. Ergo, don’t be afraid to get aggressive, not only with your premium hands but when you are in position, i.e., one of the last players to act on a hand and the furthest from the dealer button. Doing so gives you free information on the strength of most of your opponents’ hands before you even need to act.

Try Not to be Too Wedded to the Second Phase of Starting Hands

Then there is the second phase of starting hands, which include the AK off-suit, AQ suited, JJ, KQ suited, AJ suited, AK off-suit and a pair of tens. Although this clutch of starting hands is potential winners, they are by no means invincible. Play them strongly in position when others are displaying weakness and don’t be afraid to fold them if a dangerous flop or turn card appears.

Don’t Be Afraid to Mix Up Your Bets/Raises

While the above strategy for premium starting hands is a good starting point for beginners, it can become a little too predictable if you only wait for the absolute “nuts” before getting involved in a hand — you’ll scare off too many of your opponents. As you develop a feel for the game and your opponents, you might want to consider limping (calling) into pots, even with premium starting hands, especially if there are only one or two players. They might get a piece of the flop, but still be well behind your starting hand, giving you significant leverage to show strength with your next bets.

What Are Premium Poker Hands Play

Premium starting hands in Texas Hold’em

You’ve learned about the poker hand hierarchy and you’ve got the basic rules of the game down pat! The next thing you need to build more confidence at the table is the knowledge of which hands you should start out playing.

Premium Starting Hands

It’s your turn to bet and now you’re wondering if your hand is strong enough to justify a call or raise, or maybe you should fold? Below are the generally accepted, top ten starting hole card hands in Texas Hold’em poker. They are considered premium hole cards and are potential hand-winning cards. With these cards, you will certainly want to play the hand, but be sure to consider your position on the table.

Pocket Aces (Bullets) – Considered the best starting hole cards in Hold’em, AA are playable from any position.

Pocket Kings (Cowboys) – Considered the second best starting hole cards, KK are playable from any position.

Pocket Queens (Ladies) – Great strength pre-flop but becomes difficult to play post-flop when over-cards hit.

AKs(uited) (Big Slick) – This is the fourth strongest starting hand, even against KK and is a significant favorite against the rest.

AQs(uited) (Little Slick) – This hand is strong but can easily be dominated in typical all-in pre-flop scenarios.

Pocket Jacks (Fishhooks) – Many players claim paired jacks are the most difficult top 10 starting hand to play. While being one of the top 10 best starting hand, JJ versus AA-QQ and AKo-AQs is vulnerable.

What Are Premium Poker Hands Against

KQs(uited) (Royal Couple) –While this hand is best suited to make straights and flushes, it can put you in difficult positions when flopping top pair, as you quite possibly will not have the best kicker.

AJ (Ajax) – These hole cards can be difficult to play from early position because you will never get folds from better aces, and you won’t get the value of a top pair. However, it does have value in its ability to make the nut straight or flush.

AKo(ff-suit) (Big Ugly) – The strongest unsuited, non-pair. This hand is easy to overplay and over value in tournaments and in ring games.

TT (TNT) – Extremely strong vs two random cards, yet as with JJ, it can be difficult to play.

Now that you’re familiar with the basic rules and best hands of poker, betting, position and premium starting hands, you’re ready to take a seat and begin your poker adventure!