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POKER STRATEGY AND LESSONS - Simple Guide To Common Starting Poker Hands and How To Play Them – Low Limit Poker Starting Hands

If you clicked on this link looking for the secret to playing Hold’Em poker, I am sorry. I don’t have that for you. Understanding which starting two cards in Hold'Em you should always play is not enough to win poker pots. This simple guide on how to play starting poker hands is not going to lay out which two cards will always win money. I can tell you what works for me, I play very tight poker, but I have seen very good players make a lot of money playing very loose poker. The secret to poker is betting, and there is no Simple Poker Guide to that. Keep in mind that these tips are based on a very tight Hold'Em player’s perspective. 

Instead, I will go over some poker hole cards I see people play on a regular basis, and explain why I think playing them is a bad idea. 

The opening poker hands I watch lose the most are the Aces or Kings with a low kicker (such as Ace/3). I am always amazed when I win a big poker pot with an Ace/Jack while a guy on the other side of the table is strongly betting his Ace/2 offsuit. I am always happy to take their money, but I never understand their opening hand poker strategy. Unless I am in a very good position or I have one of the blinds I will fold anything less than an Ace/9. 

Speaking of Aces, if I have Queen/King in the hole, the flop contains an Ace and King, and someone is betting it, I am gone. Like I just previously discussed, there are a lot of players who will stay in anytime they have an Ace in the hole. I do not mess with an Ace on the flop when I have second pair, especially when I have very few outs. Now, having said that, you are much more likely to have a pair of Jacks and see a Queen on the flop and win the pot, even if someone is betting it. After all, how many decent players are staying in with Queen/3 versus Ace/3? Not too many. It is always scary to stay in with second pair. Knowing your opponents betting tendencies is the key to winning these pots. By this, I mean if someone playing tight is in the pot betting as if he has the Queens, believe him. If a loose player who bets at every pot is in there you do not need to be as concerned. These are the pots ‘The Edge’ will help you win.

Pocket Pairs below Jacks (maybe 10’s) are also a bad idea to play, especially out of position. Being out of position means you have one of the first bets at the table, leaving many others behind you. To win with low pocket pairs you either have to flop a set (three of a kind) or bluff people out of the pot. You have approximately a 1 in 13 chance of flopping a set. This means every time you pay a dollar to see the flop, the one time out of thirteen you get the card you need, you have to win more than $13 to be profitable. Winning more than $13 at a $1/$2 table is very possible if the players are very loose, but you cannot count on it.

I have seen a lot of advice telling people to slow play pocket Aces or Kings to get as much money in the pot as possible. This may be a good strategy in a high-limit or no-limit game since you are not likely to see more than three people in these pots anyway, but in a low-limit game you want to scare as many people off as possible with your bets pre-flop. Your high pocket pair is much less likely to win against six players than it is against three, and there are always a couple of loose players willing to call any bet at a low-limit table. Jam this pot with bets and scare a couple of players off. I hate hearing people gripe about loosing with a high pair when they do not raise pre-flop, unless of course they lose to me.

I also see a lot of people play any suited connectors, such as 7/8 of Spades. Sure these hands have the possibility of winning, but it is not enough to spend money on. If you are playing these hands take the time to track how often you win with them. The real test is to keep track of how much money you spend on these hands versus how much money you win playing these hands. If you are at a $1/$2 table and you have to see 15 flops for every one time you win $10 then you have to stop playing these cards. It is certainly frustrating to watch bad players beat you with these hands, but remember, they will lose more than they will win in the long run. It is your job as a smart player to keep from falling into this trap yourself because you get beat a couple of times by these fish.

Lets rock a bit now, shall we? Since you have digested all that theory and now truly are a qualified poker player with lots of written knowledge, lets see how you will do in the real world, ok?