Texas hold'em starting hands

How do you read a starting hands chart?

Every two-card hand has a square. Find your higher card down the left edge and your lower card along the top.

• Pairs run down the diagonal, from aces in the top corner to 2s at the bottom.
• Suited hands, both cards one suit, sit above the diagonal and end in s. AKs is ace-king suited.
• Offsuit hands, two suits, sit below it and end in o. AKo is ace-king offsuit.

That's 169 squares for the 1,326 ways to be dealt two cards. You'll be dealt a pair about 1 in 17 hands, and aces 1 in 221.

Set the chart to your seat and to what happened before the action reached you. A colored square is a hand to play: raise, or call the raise in front of you.

Why does position matter in poker?

Your seat decides two things: how many players still act after you, and whether you act before or after them on every round to come. From the first seat, eight players are left to wake up with something better. On the button, only the two blinds are, and you act last after the flop, seeing what everyone else does first.

So the chart widens seat by seat. Early position raises 12.1% of hands, the middle seats 20.4%, the cutoff 32.1% and the button 43.6%. Early position is the first three seats after the big blind; the middle is the next two, the lojack and the hijack; the cutoff sits just before the button.

First in, the book never just calls the big blind. It raises or it folds. A raise can win the blinds on the spot, and when it doesn't, you have the lead.

What hands should you play against a raise?

A raise in front of you usually means a good hand, so the chart tightens. From early position the book plays 7.8% of hands against a raise; from the cutoff or the button, 15.2%. Those two late seats share one chart here.

• Raise again with the biggest pairs and ace-king. That's a reraise, also called a three-bet.
• Call with hands that can become something big: pairs that can flop three of a kind, which happens one flop in 8.5 (11.8%), and suited hands that can make a flush or a straight.
• Fold the rest, including many hands that would have been a raise if nobody had raised.

How should you play the blinds?

The small blind is the worst seat at the table: after the flop you act first on every round. The book raises or folds there, 30.9% of hands when everyone has folded to you, and plays only 7.2% against a raise.

The big blind already has a bet in, so a call costs less than it does anyone else. That's why it defends the widest against a raise, 22.8% of hands. When nobody raises and players just call, called limping, the big blind checks and sees the flop for free, and raises only the top 4.1% of hands to make the limpers pay.

Every range, written out

In chart notation: 77+ means sevens and every pair above, A7s+ means ace-seven suited up to ace-king suited, and TT-77 runs from tens down to sevens.

Early, first in, raise

77+, A7s+, A5s-A4s, KTs+, QTs+, JTs, T9s, AJo+, KQo

Early, facing a raise, raise again

QQ+, AKs, AKo

Early, facing a raise, call

JJ-77, AQs-ATs, KJs+, QJs, JTs, AQo

Middle, first in, raise

22+, A2s+, K9s+, Q9s+, J9s+, T8s+, 97s+, 87s, 76s, ATo+, KJo+, QJo

Middle, facing a raise, raise again

JJ+, AQs+, AKo

Middle, facing a raise, call

TT-22, AJs-ATs, A5s-A4s, KJs+, QJs, JTs, T9s, 98s, AQo-AJo

Cutoff, first in, raise

22+, A2s+, K2s+, Q6s+, J7s+, T7s+, 96s+, 86s+, 75s+, 65s, 54s, A7o+, KTo+, QTo+, JTo, T9o

Cutoff, facing a raise, raise again

JJ+, AQs+, AKo

Cutoff, facing a raise, call

TT-22, AJs-A9s, A5s-A4s, KTs+, QTs+, JTs, T9s, 98s, 87s, 76s, 65s, 54s, AQo-AJo, KQo

Button, first in, raise

22+, A2s+, K2s+, Q2s+, J6s+, T5s+, 95s+, 85s+, 74s+, 64s+, 54s, A2o+, K8o+, Q9o+, J9o+, T9o

Button, facing a raise, raise again

JJ+, AQs+, AKo

Button, facing a raise, call

TT-22, AJs-A9s, A5s-A4s, KTs+, QTs+, JTs, T9s, 98s, 87s, 76s, 65s, 54s, AQo-AJo, KQo

Small blind, first in, raise

22+, A2s+, K2s+, Q6s+, J7s+, T7s+, 97s+, 86s+, 75s+, 65s, 54s, A7o+, KTo+, QTo+, JTo

Small blind, facing a raise, raise again

QQ+, AKs, AKo

Small blind, facing a raise, call

JJ-77, AQs-AJs, KQs, QJs, JTs, AQo

Big blind, behind limpers, raise

TT+, AQs+, KQs, AKo

Big blind, facing a raise, raise again

QQ+, AKs, AKo

Big blind, facing a raise, call

JJ-22, AQs-A2s, K9s+, Q9s+, J8s+, T8s+, 97s+, 86s+, 75s+, 65s, 54s, AQo-ATo, KJo+, QJo, JTo

Common questions

Where this chart comes from

It's the book Ridotto's poker room plays by: a nine-handed live $1/$3 game with $300 stacks, a hundred big blinds. The ranges follow the beginner charts that low-stakes live material agrees on, from Upswing Poker, Red Chip Poker and Ed Miller's book The Course, and Ridotto's verifier checks every range against those published bands and a simulation of each hand against a full table before it ships. The why behind every square is the same one the coach gives in the app.

This is a starting point for a passive live game, not a solver's output for tough online play. Deeper stacks and aggressive tables move the edges of every range.