As many of you know, Phil Hellmuth is one of the most successful Texas Hold 'em players of all time. I recently read his book, Play Poker Like the Pros, and was very impressed with his Hold 'em Strategy. It is not my intent to plagiarize his book, but no poker strategy site would be complete without mentioning the playing ability and strategy of Phil Hellmuth.
Known affectionately as American Airlines, pocket rockets, or simply the bullets, a wired pair of aces is the top starting hand in all of Texas holdem. As you can see, bringing aces to battle against nine random hands gives you nearly a one third chance of winding up the winner. Even the top two Hold’em hands of A-A and K-K win, on average, less than half of the pots when 4 or 5 players stay in. Those community flops are a realistic scenario at looser USA-facing sites like Ignition Poker and Bovada Poker. Your goal should be to thin the field preflop and increase your odds of that premium hand holding up. Texas Holdem – Top 10% Starting Hands. In Texas Hold’em, there are 169 unique combinations of preflop starting hands you can be dealt. This number is arrived at by grouping holdings into pairs, suited cards and offsuit cards, and considering that preflop specific suits (e.g. Hearts vs diamonds) don’t yet have value. (If taking into account suits, the number of hole card combinations. The total number of possible royal flush hands in a standard 52 card deck is 4. And the odds of making a royal flush is 649,739 to 1. This is correct assuming that every game plays to the river. In poker terms, the river is the name for the fifth card dealt, face-up on the board. In total, there are 2,598,960 possible poker hands with 52 cards. The Top Hands There is no change at the very top of the hand ranking chart. While you will make a straight flush and a royal flush more often in 6+ Hold’em than in Holdem, it is still very hard to make these hands relative to the other hands.
Therefore, I have chosen to reveal and comment on what Hellmuth calls his “Top 10.” When Hellmuth refers to his Top 10, he is talking about pocket card, starting hand requirements. One should note that this isn't a list of the only hands Hellmuth plays, but he does suggest that the poker player can make lots of money in low limit poker, by waiting on these cards and playing them aggressively.
Without further ado, Hellmuth's Top 10:
Top 10 Best Starting Hands For Texas Hold 'em Poker
1. A-A
Top Texas Holdem Hands
2. K-K
Top Texas Holdem Hands
3. Q-Q
4. A-K suited
5. J-J
6. 10-10
7. 9-9
8. 8-8
9. A-Q suited
10. 7-7
Hellmuth submits that these 10 hands should be the only pocket cards played by the beginner in low limit Texas Hold 'em. This makes the game much simpler before the flop, however, as you can probably guess, the tricks of how to play these 10 hands after the flop can get complicated.
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As a general rule though, bet these top 10 hands aggressively. The higher in the ranking, the more aggressively they should be played. Your strategy after the flop will be determined by what hits the board and the actions of your opponents.
Top 10 Texas Hold'em Hands
Top Poker Hands To Play
Play these top 10 right in low limit Hold 'em games and you will make money. As you build your bankroll and your confidence, you can increase your starting hand requirements.
Meanwhile, I would suggest making a $16 investment in Hellmuth's book, Play Poker Like the Pros. It's not the perfect poker strategy book, and Phil even cautions that he is a no limit player, not a limit player! However, a look inside the mind of a man who has won multiple World Series of Poker bracelets is well worth the $16!