Texas Hold'em poker - Starting holdings

For practical purposes, a five-way classification of holdings is sufficient, and much easier to keep in mind than a ranking system.

There are two key things a player must remember about a holding: its frequency (how often does it occur?) and its efficiency, (what fraction of the time does it prove to be a winner?). Ghe first can be calculated precisely. The second cannot as it depends on the actions of the other players.

Group 1 (occurs 5% of time)

These holdings have both cards queens or higher. The strongest of these hands is the pair of aces, the weakest the A,Q, unsuited. One doesn’t get these hands often but they both excellent holdings, and prove to be winners around 50% of the time.

Group 2 (occurs 9% of the time)

This group adds all holdings in which the 10 or J is the lower ranked card. The strongest holdings in this group are a pair of jacks and Q,J, suited, and the weakest is a K,10, unsuited. Holdings in this group prove to be winners almost as frequently, relative to their occurrence, as the premium hands, but they have the drawback that many times their status is not clearly defined by the flop.

Group 3 (occurs 18% of the time)

This group contains all holdings in which a 9 is the lower card, all remaining holdings that are headed by an ace, and a good number of pairs, touching cards, and near touching cards in the middle ranks.

Although holdings in this group, such as a pair of 8s, a J,9, suited, and an A,6, look attractive, they do not often win enough relative to their occurrence to be highly valued. The efficiency of hands in this group is only about 20-30% but this may be good enough for a call if betting is light.

Group 4 (occurs 13% of the time)

This group adds all pairs below 7s, all hands where the lower card is an 8, several holdings with a king and mid-level card, and some mid-level touching and near touching cards if they are suited. Holdings in this group win to little of the time to be worth pursuing unless the first round betting is light and without raises.

Group 5 (occurs 55% of the time)

There are two key decision points in holdem: first, whether to pay to see the flop, given your two-card holding; and second, whether to continue after seeing the relationship between you hand and the flop.

As usual, these odds need to be compared to the implied pot odds facing the player. The relevant odds will be the ratio of expected winnings if the holding becomes the best hand at the end, to the size of the players contribution to the pot until he makes the decision whether to fold.

Implied odds can not be known with certainty, but the nature of the game – especially its usual betting patterns - makes it possible to estimate them. This is easier if you are sitting in late positions at the table rather than in early ones, since you need to estimate how many players will be staying in, and how big are the bets and raises that you will have to call in order to see the flop.