One of the most important things a poker beginner needs to start learning is how important it is to know the “math” part of the game. In fact, all the choices and strategies we can make at the table depend on it, and it offers us a series of very important information that we must always keep in mind. If before we started talking about the first attention to be had during the game, and it is also time to talk about pure and simple probability: which are the starting hands that have the most chance of winning?
The Starting Hands
By “ Starting Hand ” we mean our two cards that come to us during the current hand. It is basically the second great information that we have available during a stroke (the first is precisely that of the starting position in the hand) and it is also based on this that we will have to start making decisions about it.
Those who approach this game, at least initially, will give great importance to these two cards and how they will bind together during the hand. We will then understand later how relying only on this is not very productive in the long run, but in the meantime, since our eyes will be conditioned by the value we attribute to these cards, let’s at least try to be aware of their real value in terms of the possibility of winning and not only for what we “perceive”.
The Chance Of Winning The Starting Hands
There are 169 possible combinations of cards that we can have as a starting hand, at least in terms of numerical value and not of precise suit (which interests us only if it is the same for both cards). By definition we will call two cards of the same suit ” suited ” and it is particularly important to evaluate because as we will see, having this type of pairing could increase our chances of winning.
When we talk about ” chance of winning ” we are obviously talking about a theoretical condition: the beauty of poker is also the possibility of inducing the opponent to believe something different from what we have in hand, so apart from the mathematics a lot will depend on how the hand is unfolded. But in general, the percentages that we will see later in the table are useful for two reasons: meanwhile to have a precise idea of the absolute value of the hand we have, to have a precise data that we can then use during the mathematical calculations that the game requires to understand how profitable an action is.
The value of the hands also depends on the number of players involved. Even in this case, if only we begin to become familiar with the fact that the more people there are in one hit, the more our chances are tapering even if we started with good or excellent starting hands (which is why often the best strategy is to limit the number of people involved).
Best Starting Hands: Percentage Tables
Not that it took an expert to figure out that AA, KK, QQ and so on are the best hands to have in a game of poker. But analyzing this table better also allows us to make several other considerations. Let’s start with a simple reading: in this case we are talking about the win percentage of our hand (represented in the left column) , compared to a “random ” hand (that is, whatever our opponent may have in his hand) and compared to the number of participants in hand (always with any hands).
It is an important consideration because obviously in reality we will often have additional information that allows us to narrow the “range” (the range of possibilities) of the opponent’s hand, actually changing the chances of winning and the analysis we will have to do.