Texas hold 'em starting hands consists of two
hole cards in the
poker game of
Texas hold 'em, which belong solely to the player and remain hidden from the other players. Five
community cards are also dealt into play. Betting begins before any of the community cards are exposed, and continues throughout the hand. The player's "playing hand", which will be compared against that of each competing player, is the best 5-card
poker hand available from his two hole cards and the five community cards. Unless otherwise specified, here the term
hand applies to the player's two hole cards, or
starting hand.
Essentials
There are (52 × 51)/2 = 1,326 distinct possible
combinations of two hole cards from a standard 52-card deck in hold 'em, but since suits have no
relative value in poker, many of these hands are identical in value before the
flop. For example, and are identical, because each is a hand consisting of an ace and a jack of the same suit. There are 169 nonequivalent starting hands in hold 'em (13 pocket pairs, 13 × 12 / 2 = 78 suited hands and 78 unsuited hands; 13 + 78 + 78 = 169). These 169 hands are
not equally likely (see
Poker probability ). There are 25 starting hands with a probability of winning at a ten-handed table of greater than 1/7. Hold 'em hands are sometimes classified as having one of three "shapes":
- Pairs, (or "pocket pairs"), which consist......
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