What Are Premium Poker Hands
See full list on pokerology.com. Playing Premium Starting Hands. Poker is a game of decisions, and seven card stud is no exception. Throughout the course of a session, you will have to decide when to fold, when to bet, when to call, when your opponent really has the hand he is representing, and even when to leave the table. Any hand that has a score over 80 is a premium hand and anything over about 65 are very strong hands. That’s what these poker hand percentages are all about: telling you which hands to play pre-flop before you have any other information. The numbers tell you they’re good hands because they simple win more often than others on average. When you hear someone talk about premium poker cards, what they are referring to is for someone to have the most reliable preflop hand. Ultimately, it is these initial cards that help create the best hand and thus win at the showdown since they act as bases for your game. May 01, 2018 Premium Starting Hands It’s your turn to bet and now you’re wondering if your hand is strong enough to justify a call or raise, or maybe you should fold? Below are the generally accepted, top ten starting hole card hands in Texas Hold’em poker. They are considered premium hole cards and are potential hand-winning cards.
Premium starting hands in Texas Hold’em
You’ve learned about the poker hand hierarchy and you’ve got the basic rules of the game down pat! The next thing you need to build more confidence at the table is the knowledge of which hands you should start out playing.
Premium Starting Hands
It’s your turn to bet and now you’re wondering if your hand is strong enough to justify a call or raise, or maybe you should fold? Below are the generally accepted, top ten starting hole card hands in Texas Hold’em poker. They are considered premium hole cards and are potential hand-winning cards. With these cards, you will certainly want to play the hand, but be sure to consider your position on the table.
Pocket Aces (Bullets) – Considered the best starting hole cards in Hold’em, AA are playable from any position.
Pocket Kings (Cowboys) – Considered the second best starting hole cards, KK are playable from any position.
Pocket Queens (Ladies) – Great strength pre-flop but becomes difficult to play post-flop when over-cards hit.
AKs(uited) (Big Slick) – This is the fourth strongest starting hand, even against KK and is a significant favorite against the rest.
AQs(uited) (Little Slick) – This hand is strong but can easily be dominated in typical all-in pre-flop scenarios.
Pocket Jacks (Fishhooks) – Many players claim paired jacks are the most difficult top 10 starting hand to play. While being one of the top 10 best starting hand, JJ versus AA-QQ and AKo-AQs is vulnerable.
KQs(uited) (Royal Couple) –While this hand is best suited to make straights and flushes, it can put you in difficult positions when flopping top pair, as you quite possibly will not have the best kicker.
AJ (Ajax) – These hole cards can be difficult to play from early position because you will never get folds from better aces, and you won’t get the value of a top pair. However, it does have value in its ability to make the nut straight or flush.
AKo(ff-suit) (Big Ugly) – The strongest unsuited, non-pair. This hand is easy to overplay and over value in tournaments and in ring games.
TT (TNT) – Extremely strong vs two random cards, yet as with JJ, it can be difficult to play.
Now that you’re familiar with the basic rules and best hands of poker, betting, position and premium starting hands, you’re ready to take a seat and begin your poker adventure!
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Playing Premium Starting Hands
Poker is a game of decisions, and seven card stud is no exception. Throughout the course of a session, you will have to decide when to fold, when to bet, when to call, when your opponent really has the hand he is representing, and even when to leave the table.
After choosing a table and deciding to have a seat, the first key decision, after the deal, you will face is what to do with your starting hand – your pocket cards and door card, the first three cards you are dealt. Some starting hands are good, some are great, and some are junk. These traits are not static, either. A starting hand that may have been good in one spot may be awful in another, and vice-versa. The article discusses the two strongest types of starting hands, the premium hands: trips and premium pairs.
Trips
If, after getting dealt an ace door card, you happen to look down and see a pair of pocket aces to go along with it, congratulations: you have just been dealt the best starting hand in seven card stud. Any time you get this hand or any other set of rolled-up trips, you have a very powerful hand. The temptation may be to raise at every opportunity to try to get as much money in the middle as possible. For the most part, try to resist. If you immediately start raising through the roof, you may find everyone folding on the opening round, leaving you with only the antes and the bring-in bet to show for your monster hand.
Instead, you may try playing your hand more slowly for the first two streets or so. Call any bets on the opening round and on fourth street, letting other players bet your hand for you. This enables you to get a little money in the pot early. On fifth street, when playing seven card stud the betting doubles, pick up the pace. Start betting and raising, simultaneously getting more money in the pot (your pot) and getting some other players to fold, particularly those who might be drawing to hands that would beat you. Pay attention, howeverto the possible other hand rankings. If the guy whose hand has been looking more and more like a straight starts suddenly starts raising you on sixth street or the river, you may have to reconsider with your trips are still as strong as they were a few streets ago.
Premium Pairs
What Are Premium Poker Hands Signals
Premium pairs are pairs of tens or higher. Playing pairs in seven card stud can be significantly more complicated than trips, with more variables involved. The first of these variables is whether your pair is wired (your pocket cards are paired) or split (your door card matches one of your pocket cards). A wired pair is more powerful than a split pair, because it is better concealed, especially if it turns into trips later.
The biggest difference between trips and a premium pair on the opening round is that with a premium pair, you want to raise. You are trying to get as many players out of the hand as possible. Premium pairs play better against fewer players, so bet with impunity on third street. There are exceptions to this rule, of course. For instance, if you have split jacks, and one player raised in front of you with a queen door card and another player re-raised with a king showing, you might reconsider the strength of your hand.
What Are Premium Poker Hands Play
On fifth street, your goal again should be to eliminate the competition. You want that guy across from you with the three-straight showing to get out of your way before he has a chance to make his hand. Do not allow a free card with just an unimproved premium pair on fifth street. The overarching theme here is that opposed to with trips, with a premium pair, you want to be playing against as few players as possible every step of the way. It may be tempting to try to sneakily build the pot by check-raising your pocket aces, but in seven card stud pocket aces is often not a winner by the time the river cards get dealt.