The highest possible starting hand in Hold’em is two aces. The highest possible starting hand in Hold’em is two aces. The lowest possible starting hand in Hold’em is 72 off suit. At the beginning of the game each player has to contribute chips to the pot (ante) before they are dealt cards. In addition to this there are two players that contribute more chips to the pot than the rest (the big blind and the small blind).
When it’s the player’s turn to act, the options are ‘fold, call and raise’. An explanation of what each option means: To ‘fold’ a hand is to throw it away. A player who folds turns over his hand and is no longer eligible to win that pot. Folding will cost a player any money he has already contributed to that pot.
After looking at your cards, you may choose to play, or you may fold. The first player to make a decision is the last one to receive cards (on a table of 10 the first player will be the small blind). The way you declare your intention is simply by not throwing cards in and saying “fold” or by putting in money to meet the minimum bet for that round.
The first thing that you need to understand about no-limit Texas hold’em poker is that there is only one important rule: never play a weak hand. You might have heard before that it’s essential to play tight, which means only play the best hands. This is true, but it isn’t enough. Sometimes playing a premium hand isn’t good enough, it has to be one of the very best hands too. Two pair and top pair are not good hands if there are more than four players in the pot because they can’t be sure of winning. And even if they win sometimes, they will lose to a better two pair or a better top pair anyway so those hands are definitely not worth calling raises with. But these hands should be raised with.
The only problem with this strategy is it leaves a player open to being re-raised which is almost always fatal, because then he’s faced with an all-in decision and if he calls off his chips then he’ll still lose most of the time when his opponent turns up with a bigger top pair or trips or whatever, which usually happens.
