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There is a total of 169 non-equivalent starting poker hands in Texas Hold’em, which is composed of 13 pocket pairs, 78 suited hands and 78 unsuited hands.
Once you familiarize yourself with basic Texas Hold ‘em play, hand rankings and dealing, you should learn about the odds and probabilities associated with different aspects of the game. While it may be impossible to calculate precise odds mid-hand, particularly given you’ll never see your opponents’ cards until all decisions have been made, knowing when to play (and when not to play) different hands typically requires more than just good instinct.
In Texas Hold ‘em, winners are often decided before the community cards are even laid out, so the chances of being dealt a strong starting hand is something many players think.
So make sure you think very carefully before every flop and build the foundations for a profitable hand by making the correct preflop strategy decision. Preflop starting hand selection. Choosing which hands to play and which hands to fold is fundamental to playing a winning poker game. The best hands to play in Texas Holdem are: Big pocket. Texas hold 'em starting hands. A pair of aces is the best pre-flop hand in Texas Hold'em Poker. In the poker game of Texas hold 'em, a starting hand consists of two hole cards, which belong solely to the player and remain hidden from the other players. Five community cards are also dealt into play. Betting begins before any of the community. The progression of Texas Holdem poker hand. It is very easy to play Texas Holdem when you understand the progression of the hand and other basic rules. Therefore, this poker cheat sheet of hand progression will show you all the action in order. Players place the small blind, and the big blind and the hand starts. Preflop Texas Hold’em Odds Bold text = most common playing decisions and thus most important to commit to memory. If I recommend that you memorize a vital statistic it will be bolded and you will run into it frequently playing Texas Hold’em. In parenthesis, the probability will be expressed in percentages to the nearest tenth. Sep 26, 2017 In this video I go through the math behind knowing if you have the highest card pre flop in texas hold em poker. This video goes hand in hand with the poker pre flop strategy video that is also on.
Calculating Texas Hold ‘em Odds
To understand the odds of drawing any particular starting hand, you’ll have to consider all of the factors that go into the deal of a hand. Considering a shuffle to completely randomize the order of the cards, the biggest factors that will affect a draw are the number of players at the table and your own position relevant to the dealer. Also consider that there are four cards of any given value in each deck and there are 169 different hole card combinations. That being said, there’s a roughly one in 1326 chance that players will be dealt any specific hand, so it’s important to know what kind of odds you should keep in mind whenever you step to the poker table.
Pre Flop
You have a 55:1 chance of being dealt a pair of Jacks or higher.
Your Texas Hold’em experience will begin with your hole cards, and while you cannot change the cards that are dealt your way, it’s good to know what to expect. While World Series of Poker reruns may make it seem like someone at the table will be dealt pocket kings every hand, starting with a monster hand is rarer than you may imagine. For more on Pre Flop strategy see our guide here.
Quick Odds
While an extensive list of the probabilities for preflop hands could fill a book, here are some quick odds to consider when you’re peeking at your cards for the first time.
- Being dealt a pocket pair: 16:1
- Being dealt suited cards: 3.2:1
- Being dealt suited connectors: 24:1
- Being dealt AK: 82:1
- Being dealt two cards of jack or higher: 10:1
- Being dealt AA, KK, QQ or JJ: 55:1
The Flop
The flop is a game changer in every sense of the words. With more cards in your hand, players will get their first real taste of what the final outcome will look like. That being said, players will want to think about the odds for how their hand could turn out before they start placing or calling bets. For more on Post Flop strategy see our guide here.
Quick Odds
Though the presented odds may be mathematically accurate, they do present a best case scenario that you won’t always find yourself in at the table. These calculations don’t take into account the probabilities of the card or cards you are looking for turning up as burn cards or in your opponents’ hands, so keep that in mind when considering your next move.
- Hitting a pair on the flop: 2:1
- Pocket pair improving to three of a kind on the flop: 7:1
- Flop being three of a kind: 424:1
- Odds of flopping a flush with suited hole cards: 118:1
The odds of flopping a straight can be a bit harder to pin down. Depending on your starting hand, there are any number of card combinations that could lead to a flopped straight. Those hands that have the more flexibility when it comes to straight draws, particularly middling connectors (those between 5 and 9), have the strongest chances of hitting on the flop because there are more cards that could allow for their straight to hit. The wider the gap between your starting cards, the worse your chances are.
The Turn and River
Naturally, as the hand progresses and fewer cards remain to be dealt, the odds of making any particular hand become slimmer and slimmer. That being said, you’ll want to look at the odds for a hand from beginning to end as well as those from stage to stage.
Quick Odds
Your odds change as each new card is dealt.
Over the course of a full hand, these scenarios could play out
- One pair on flop improving to two pair or a set by the river: 4:1
- Catching an ace on the turn or river: 7:1
- Open ended straight hitting by the river: 2:1
- Gutshot straight draw hit by the river: 5:1
- Pocket pair improving to set by river: 10:1
- Going runner runner for a flush: 23:1
- Going runner runner for a straight: 67:1
Pot and Implied Odds
In addition to the odds that your cards will pair or better, experienced players know that pot odds, that is, the ratio of the size of the pot to the cost of a call, play an important role in proper Hold’em strategy. With all of the risks that are inherently involved in games like poker, players won’t get far if they don’t decide to gamble every so often – and pot odds allow you to make smarter decision when it comes time to place your money on the line. Pot odds take into consideration the likelihood of making a hand to establish a decent risk vs. reward ratio.
Another important statistic for players to keep in mind is ‘implied odds,’ which factor in the likely size and frequency of any betting that may come in later rounds of play. These come into play post flop and will be a factor until the river is dealt, and unlike most other Texas hold ’em odds, implied odds will be entirely based on your read on your opponents’ betting habits and aggression.
Texas Holdem Odds And Probabilities
To calculate effective pot odds, consider your position in the hand and relative strength, then make a note of the amount of money currently in the pot. If you’re in a position to call, think of how much you stand to win should your hand come out ahead, as establishing a solid return on investment can help turn a questionable call into a big win. If no one has bet, then pot odds can help you deduce what size bet you will want to make in order to shift the statistical probabilities in your favor. With a sound bet, you could either make the continued investment not worth the potential gain or place a value wager designed to elicit a call from any remaining opponents. You will have to decide whether or not your chances of winning are worth risking the amount you could lose if you are wrong – a fine line for some players, but one that must be crossed often. For more on Texas Hold’em pot size and strategy see our guide here.
Understanding Probability In Texas Holdem Is An Essential Aspect Of Profitable Play
– Pre-Flop Probability Guide
Ever wondered how often you will be dealt Aces? Or what the chances of facing an over-pair are when you hold Jack-Jack? This section of the site will give you the probability of certain hands before the flop (this page) and in later pages the chances of certain flops (for example one suit flop probability) and the chances of dominating hands being out there to your ace-x hand (where x is one of several small to medium cards).
![Texas Texas](https://www.smartpokerstudy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Top-20-NLHE-Starting-Hands_page-0001-e1567881798540.jpg)
![Holdem Holdem](/uploads/1/2/5/1/125199349/722599099.jpg)
Texas Holdem Preflop Chart
We start by looking at how the cards in the deck can be dealt based on a random distribution of the 1326 ways of 2 cards falling and how often you’ll expect to be dealt certain hands. Then we take suitedness into account – since there are less ways of being dealt 2 suited cards. Later articles in this series will continue with the essential poker probability and card distribution stats you need.
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Firstly, where did the number 1326 come from? Well with 52 cards in the deck your first card is 1/52 this is then multiplied by 1/51 and the total divided by 2 (since it does not matter what order your cards are dealt in) giving 1326 combinations of all cards in any suit.
Of course suitedness is not often important, especially for low cards. The next question is then – what is the number of unique starting hands in Texas Holdem, not counting suits? The answer here is 169 unique hands.
Pre-Flop Poker Probability - 169 Distinct Starting Hands
Now we are getting somewhere. Next we can use the numbers above to work out what the probability of being dealt AA, KK (or in fact any pair) is. This is a case of taking the total number of possible hands and then seeing how many of these are your pair. We will take a pair of Kings as an example. Of the 1326 possible combinations there are 6 ways of being dealt this hand pre-flop. The 6 combinations possible are Kh-Kd, Kh-Kc, Kh-Ks, Kd-Kc, Kd-Ks and Kc-Ks.
6 / 1326 = 0.00435 or 221-to-1
So the chances of being dealt any specific pair are 221:1 against, in fact with 13 possible pairs the chances of being dealt any pair go up to 16-to-1 (there are 78 pair combinations from 1326 total).
Next we can look at unpaired hands, a specific example is the number of ways of being dealt Ace-king pre-flop. Here we have more possible combinations, since there are 8 cards that can be dealt first and then 3 remaining cards to make this hand (we will ignore suitedness for the moment). This gives 16 ways in which A-K can be dealt out of the 1326 combinations – a probability of 0.0121% or approximately 82-to-1. In fact this is the same for any unpaired hand when you ignore the suits.
Pre-Flop Poker Probability - Probability Of Hands Pre-Flop Chart
The reference table below gives probabilities of being dealt specific hands pre-flop: The next article in this series will look at the chances of being dealt hands at the same time as one or more opponent is dealt a higher hand – for example AA vs KK and AK vs QQ.
Pre-flop Hand | Odds | |
AA | 0.045 | Same for any pocket pair |
AK (any suits) | 0.012 | Any 2 cards not inc. suits |
AK (suited) | 0.003 | |
Sac & fox casino shawnee ok. Pair 10-10 or better | 0.023 | 10-10, JJ, QQ, KK or AA |
AK, AQ or AJ | 0.036 | Suits not considered |
2 Suited Cards 10+ | 0.03 | |
Any Suited Connector | 0.039 | 23 suited or better |
2 Cards Jack + | 0.09 | Suits not considered |
Finally we can look at how combinations of pre-flop hands work, asking the question what is the probability of being dealt a playable hand for each position. We will use arbitary early, middle and late position combinations here to demonstrate – the actually hands you play is up to your personal style!
Position | Combinations | ||
Early Position | AA to JJ, AKo, AQs | 46 | 29:1 |
Early Mid Position | AA to 99, AQo+, AJs | 18:1 | |
Mid Position | 77+, A10o+ A8s+ KQ+ | 140 | 9,5:1 |
Late Position | 55+, A7+, QJo+, 78s+ Holy Roar Tour. Buy Tickets More Info. Shawn Mendes. Sunday / March 17. Gila river casino poker. Shawn Mendes. | 5,5:1 |
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