Strong pairs and strong aces are the best foundation for choosing poker starting hands. Add more playable hands in later positions, and fold most weak, disconnected hands. The decision depends on your seat and what happened before your turn, not just the two cards you hold.
Which poker starting hands should beginners play
A useful beginner framework starts with restraint: play a narrow selection from early position, then expand as fewer players remain behind you. There is no single correct play-or-fold list independent of position and previous action. A hand worth raising when everyone has folded may be a fold when someone has already raised.
The setup here is six-handed No-Limit Texas Hold’em with a standard 52-card deck, no antes, no rake and an unopened pot, meaning nobody has voluntarily called or raised. Effective stacks are 100 big blinds: the smaller stack available between the players involved determines how many chips they can contest.
Every worked example uses 5/10 blinds and 1,000-chip effective starting stacks. That is 1,000 / 10 = 100 big blinds. Separate examples describe separate hands.
Pokerista Academy teaches adults using imaginary chips with no monetary value and offers no real-money gambling, wagers or prizes. All amounts below are imaginary chips.
Starting-hand selection is different from completed poker hand rankings. Those rankings compare finished five-card hands. Preflop selection evaluates two cards before the shared cards arrive. AA is a premium starting hand, but it does not guarantee a win. If you need the betting mechanics first, use the Texas Hold’em beginner guide.
How to read a starting hand chart
Poker hand notation uses A for ace, K for king, Q for queen, J for jack and T for ten. Lower ranks use their numbers. Two matching ranks indicate a pocket pair: 7♣ 7♦ is 77.
For different ranks, s means suited, with both cards sharing a suit, and o means offsuit, with different suits. A♠ K♠ is AKs; A♠ K♦ is AKo. These labels describe classes of hands, not specific suits.
A plus sign extends a sequence upward. 77+ means 77, 88, 99, TT, JJ, QQ, KK and AA. AJs+ means AJs, AQs and AKs. AQo+ means AQo and AKo. For nonpairs in this chart, keep the first rank fixed and increase the second rank without making a pair. Thus KTs+ means KTs, KJs and KQs.
A traditional poker starting hands chart has a 13 by 13 grid, or 169 cells. Those are hand classes, not equally likely deals:
13 pair classes + C(13,2) suited nonpair classes + C(13,2) offsuit nonpair classes = 13 + 78 + 78 = 169.
The standard deck produces C(52,2) = 52 × 51 / 2 = 1,326 unordered two-card combinations. Each pocket pair has C(4,2) = 6 combinations. Each suited nonpair has four matching-suit combinations, while each offsuit nonpair has 4 × 3 = 12. The cross-check is 13 × 6 + 78 × 4 + 78 × 12 = 78 + 312 + 936 = 1,326.
Six-seat preflop order is UTG, HJ, CO, BTN, SB, BB: under the gun, hijack, cutoff, button, small blind and big blind. The six-seat poker positions guide explains the full action order.
A beginner opening chart for six seats
Scope: conservative six-seat raise-first-in learning chart, 100 big blind effective stacks, no antes, no rake, not a solver solution.
“Raise first in” means raising after everyone before you has folded. A range is the collection of hands assigned to a decision. These ranges are conservative editorial teaching choices, not guaranteed profitable strategies. Late-position openings assume ordinary opponents, not known extreme tendencies to call, fold or raise again.
Text legend: Each entry identifies the position, hands to raise first in and what to do with everything else. Unlisted hands are folds in this learning framework. The notation follows the definitions above.
Position: UTG Hands to raise first in: 77+, AJs+, KQs, AQo+ Everything else: fold.
Position: HJ Hands to raise first in: 66+, ATs+, KJs+, QJs, AJo+, KQo Everything else: fold.
Position: CO Hands to raise first in: 55+, A8s+, KTs+, QTs+, JTs, T9s, 98s, ATo+, KJo+, QJo Everything else: fold.
Position: BTN Hands to raise first in: 22+, A2s+, K8s+, Q9s+, J9s+, T9s, 98s, 87s, 76s, 65s, A8o+, KTo+, QTo+, JTo Everything else: fold.
Position: SB Hands to raise first in: 55+, A8s+, KTs+, QTs+, JTs, T9s, 98s, ATo+, KJo+, QJo Everything else: fold.
The small blind deliberately uses the cutoff range as a conservative raise-or-fold simplification. Folding an omitted hand is a sensible learning default, not a claim that the hand is unprofitable in every game.
Use an opening size of 3 big blinds, or 3 × 10 = 30 chips total, for these exercises. This is a teaching size, not a universally optimal size. UTG holding A♠ A♦ opens to 30 chips with no previous voluntary action.
When the small blind raises to 30, that is a total contribution of 30, not 30 more. Having posted 5, the small blind adds 30 − 5 = 25 chips.
The big blind has no unopened-pot opening range. If everyone, including the small blind, folds, the big blind wins the pot. If the small blind calls instead, that is a limp, entering for the big blind amount without raising. The pot is no longer unopened, so this chart does not apply.
Why the same hand changes with position
An early-position opener must get through more players who could hold strong cards. A late-position opener has fewer players behind. The button also acts last after the flop, gaining information from opponents’ actions before deciding. The small blind does not share that advantage: it acts before every other remaining player after the flop.
Take A♠ J♦. UTG, it is a fold under this chart. On the button, after all earlier players fold, it is an open to 30 chips. The cards have not changed. The number of opponents still to act and your position after the flop have.
The same distinction applies to 7♠ 6♠: fold UTG, but open to 30 chips on the button after everyone folds. These are suited connectors, consecutive ranks sharing a suit. They can develop straight and flush possibilities, but they often miss and require judgment after the flop. Being suited is not a reason to play every weak hand.
Weak aces also deserve caution. With A♣ 8♦ against A♠ Q♥, the weaker ace is dominated: the hands share their highest rank, but one has a worse second card, called the kicker. If the board gives each player a pair of aces without otherwise changing their relative strength, the queen kicker remains ahead. Pairing your ace does not automatically solve the problem.
Making A8 suited would add flush possibilities, not remove the kicker disadvantage. Likewise, K♣ 7♦ remains a button fold in this framework. Late position helps, but it does not turn every high card into a useful opening hand.
What changes when someone has already entered the pot
The opening chart is not a calling chart. It does not cover limped pots, raises, three-bets or blind defense.
Opening can win the blinds when everyone folds. Calling a raise cannot win immediately that way, and the raiser has already shown willingness to play. You need a different framework.
Suppose HJ raises to 30 chips and you hold A♠ J♦ in CO. Against an assumed relatively tight opener who does not frequently raise weak hands, the conservative beginner default is fold, even though AJo appears in the cutoff opening range. Stronger aces and pairs in that opponent’s range can leave you making difficult decisions. Different tendencies can change the response.
With A♠ A♦ in CO against the same raise, use a value three-bet to 90 chips, rather than merely calling. A three-bet is the first reraise, with the big blind counted as the first bet and the opening raise as the second. Raising for value means seeking calls from weaker hands. Here, 3 × the HJ’s 30-chip opening total = 90 chips total, or 9 big blinds. This is another teaching size, not an optimization claim.
The big blind’s price illustrates why prior action needs separate analysis. BTN raises to 30 chips, SB folds, and BB must decide:
- Pot before the call: BTN 30 + SB 5 + BB 10 = 45 chips.
- Additional amount to call: 30 − 10 = 20 chips.
- Final pot after calling: 45 + 20 = 65 chips.
The folded small blind’s 5 chips remain in the pot. The immediate break-even share is therefore 20 / 65 = 4/13 = 30.769230...%, or 30.77%.
This benchmark assumes no rake and no further betting. It does not select a preflop calling range. At 100 big blinds, future betting normally matters, as do the opponent’s range and your position. Equity realization, how much of a hand’s theoretical share of the pot it actually captures through later play, matters too. A hand may have to fold before reaching the final comparison. See how pot odds work for the fuller calculation.
How to practice starting hand decisions
Use this short sequence before acting:
- Identify your position.
- Check all previous action.
- Check effective stack depth.
- Consult the framework appropriate to that situation.
- Choose a size if raising.
Shorter stacks, antes, more seats, limpers and different opponent tendencies require adjusted ranges. Do not mechanically reuse this six-seat chart at a nine-handed table, in heads-up play or in a tournament with antes. Those conditions change the opponents left to act, the chips already available or the room for later decisions.
Review borderline choices by recording your cards, seat, prior action and effective stack depth. Judge whether the decision fit those facts, not whether the hand happened to win. An omitted hand making a strong board does not prove that folding it was a mistake. The poker glossary can help with unfamiliar vocabulary during review.
You can practice five free hands at a six-seat table without an account. Use each decision to identify whether the pot is unopened before consulting the chart. Separate account-based tools require registration; all chips have no monetary value.