Starting Hands in Texas Hold ‘em

A Texas hold ‘em starting hand consists of two Hole cards which belong only to the player and are hidden at all times from opponents. There are also five community cards that are dealt. The betting starts before any of the community cards are shown and the betting continues throughout the entire hand. The best 5-card poker hand available from a player’s two hole cards and the community cards is what is called the player’s ‘playing hand’. The term ‘hand’  means the two hold cards the player is holding.

In total, there are 1,326 different possible combination of two hole cards from a conventional deck of cards in Texas hold ‘em, but considering the fact that suits have no relative value in poker, many of these hands are the same in value before the flop. There are 169 nonequivalent starting hands in hold ‘em consisting of thirteen pocket pairs, 78 suited hands and 78 unsuited hands. There are 25 starting hands and a chance of winning at a 10 handed table of more than one in seven. Hold ‘em hands are at times, classified according to one of three shapes. Pairs consist of two cards of the same rank, suited hands consist of two cards carrying the same suit and off-suit hands which consists of two cards of differing suits and rank.

In poker circles, it is common for players to nickname hole cards. The stronger handed nicknames are more widely recognized and the most common nickname is “big slick” which is an king and an ace of the same suit. Hands are often named according to how strong the hand is. For example, pairs of aces are sometimes called rockets and a ‘dead man’s hand’ such as A’s and 8’s are named for the hand that Wild Bill Hickcok held when he was murdered in the late 1800s.

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