Which Hands Should You Play?

Most starting hands lose money

There are 1,326 possible two-card combinations, which collapse into 169 distinct starting hands once you ignore specific suits. The uncomfortable truth: most of them are long-term losers, and the single biggest edge a beginner can have is simply folding more of them preflop. Solid tight-aggressive players at 6-max voluntarily put money in with roughly a fifth of their hands — and that disciplined fifth is where nearly all of their profit comes from. Playing J7 offsuit 'because it's been a while' is exactly how losing players stay losing players.

Hand notation in 60 seconds

Poker shorthand describes hands by rank plus suitedness:

• •AA, KK, 77 — pocket pairs. Two cards of the same rank.
• •AKs — ace-king suited (both cards the same suit).
• •AKo — ace-king offsuit (different suits).
• •T9s — ten-nine suited, a 'suited connector'.

Does suited really matter?

Less than beginners think, more than nothing. Suitedness adds roughly 2 percentage points of equity against a random hand (run AKs vs AKo through the odds calculator and see for yourself), but its real value is playability: suited hands can flop flush draws that let you keep fighting for pots profitably. A hand like K4o gets no such help — being suited never turns a bad hand into a good one.

The premium core: raise these from anywhere

These hands are strong enough to raise from every seat at the table, always:

• •Big pairs — AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT.
• •Big aces — AKs, AKo, AQs, AQo, AJs, ATs.
• •The best broadway — KQs.
• •That's roughly a dozen hands. AA is the best of all — about 85% to win against a random hand heads-up.

Position widens your range

Everything from lesson 3 applies here: the later you act, the more hands become profitable. Under the gun you stick close to the premium core plus a few strong extras; on the button you can profitably raise several times as many hands, because you'll play every postflop street with position. Open the preflop charts and compare the UTG grid to the button grid — the difference in colored squares is the whole idea of positional hand selection made visible.

The next tier, and what each family wants

Beyond the premium core sit three groups worth playing, mostly from later seats — and each one wants a completely different flop:

• •Small and medium pairs (22-99). Set-mining hands: you flop three of a kind about 12% of the time — roughly one flop in eight or nine — and that's mostly when they win. They want cheap entry and deep stacks to get paid.
• •Suited broadways (KQs, QJs, JTs). They make top pairs with real kickers plus straights and flushes. The most forgiving family for a beginner.
• •Suited aces (A5s-A9s). The nut flush draw is the value; the weak kicker is the trap. Fine as late-position opens, dangerous in big pots.
• •Suited connectors (T9s, 98s, 87s). They miss most flops completely and occasionally make enormous hands. They need position and the discipline to fold when they whiff, which is most of the time.

Trash that looks pretty

Some hands look tempting and quietly torch money. J7s 'is suited'. K4o 'has a king'. A5o 'has an ace'. The problem is domination: when these hands make a pair, someone with a better kicker often makes the same pair — and you lose a big pot instead of winning a small one. If a hand isn't on the chart for your seat, the chart isn't being conservative. It's protecting your bankroll.

How to read a preflop chart

Charts show all 169 hands in a 13×13 grid: pocket pairs run down the diagonal, suited hands sit above it, offsuit hands below. Colored cells mean 'raise from this position'; blank means fold. Drill: open the preflop charts, pick the seat you play most, and read off which hands it raises. Ten minutes of that beats an hour of guessing at the table.