What a starting hands chart is
A poker starting hands chart is a 13×13 grid of all 169 Texas Hold’em starting hands that shows which two-card hands to play and which to fold, usually depending on your seat at the table. Pairs run along the diagonal, suited hands sit above it and offsuit hands below it. The chart on this page is for 6-max no-limit Hold’em when nobody has raised before you: it colours each hand by the earliest seat you can open-raise it from, and switches to a heat map of how often each hand wins.
Key facts
- 169 starting hands: 13 pocket pairs, 78 suited and 78 offsuit, or 1,326 combinations counting suits.
- The best hand is A-A: it wins 85.2% against one random hand. The worst against several players is 7-2 offsuit.
- Play about 15% of hands under the gun and about 45% on the button; position matters as much as the cards. See poker positions.
- Suited hands win about 2.7 points more often than the same cards offsuit.
Texas Hold’em starting hands chart
Pick a seat to see the hands to open from it, or switch to win percentages. Tap any hand for its odds, its combinations and the seats it is opened from.
- UTG 15%
- HJ 20%
- CO 28%
- BTN 45%
- Fold
How to read it: “s” means suited, “o” offsuit, T is a ten. A-Ks sits in the top row, A-Ko in the left column. The ranges are first-in raises at a 6-max table; the small blind opens roughly the cutoff range, and the big blind defends against a raise with most suited and connected hands. Win percentages come from 300,000 simulated deals per hand with all five board cards dealt. To check a specific matchup, use the odds calculator.
The 10 best starting hands in Texas Hold’em
The best starting hands in Texas Hold’em are pocket aces, pocket kings, pocket queens, ace-king suited and pocket jacks. The order below weighs how a hand does both heads-up and against a full table: small pairs win often against one hand but drop off fast with more players, while big suited cards keep their value.
| # | Hand | Win vs 1 | Win vs 5 | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A-A | 85.2% | 49.2% | Pocket Rockets. The best hand before the flop against any number of players. |
| 2 | K-K | 82.3% | 43.0% | Only aces beat it before the flop; an ace on the board is the danger. |
| 3 | Q-Q | 79.9% | 37.9% | Raise and re-raise; still behind aces and kings. |
| 4 | A-K suited | 67.0% | 30.8% | Best unpaired hand. Makes the nut flush and the best straight. |
| 5 | J-J | 77.3% | 33.6% | Strong, but awkward when an ace, king or queen flops. |
| 6 | A-K offsuit | 65.4% | 27.5% | Wins big when it pairs, but is only a high card when it misses. |
| 7 | A-Q suited | 66.1% | 29.2% | Raise from every seat; careful against a big re-raise. |
| 8 | 10-10 | 75.0% | 30.2% | Open from any seat; plays best against one or two players. |
| 9 | A-J suited | 65.3% | 27.8% | Suited ace with a high kicker; an easy open from every seat. |
| 10 | K-Q suited | 63.4% | 28.6% | Best hand without an ace or a pair; dominated by A-K and A-Q. |
Win percentages are against random hands with the board run out to the river, so they show raw strength, not how much a hand wins in practice. Hands outside the top 10 that still open from every seat include 9-9, 8-8, A-Qo, A-10s and K-Js. Several of these hands have nicknames: Cowboys, Ladies and Big Slick among them.
Starting hand groups
Most hands fall into one of six groups, and each group is played for a different reason.
- Big pairs (A-A to 10-10). Raise from every seat and re-raise when someone raised before you. These win most often both heads-up and against several players.
- Medium and small pairs (9-9 to 2-2). Hands that win by flopping a set, which happens 11.8% of the time (about 1 in 8.5). Open them from middle and late seats; small pairs early are a fold at 6-max.
- Suited aces (A-K to A-2 suited). A-K to A-10 suited are premium. Small suited aces (A-5s to A-2s) make the nut flush and the wheel straight, which is why they are opened before the middling ones like A-7s.
- Broadway cards (K-Q, K-J, Q-J and so on). Two cards ten or higher. Suited, they are good opens from most seats; offsuit, play them from the cutoff and button, because they are often dominated by a better kicker.
- Suited connectors (10-9s, 8-7s, 6-5s). Win by making straights and flushes, so they need several players and position. Open them from the cutoff and button, fold them under the gun.
- Everything else. Unconnected, offsuit low cards (9-4, 8-2, 7-2) lose money from every seat except a free look in the big blind. About half of all hands are in this group.
Opening ranges by position
An opening range is the set of hands you raise with when everyone before you has folded. It widens as you move closer to the button, because fewer players are left to act behind you and you will act last after the flop.
| Seat | Hands | Combos | Range (cumulative) |
|---|---|---|---|
| UTG | 15% | 200 | 5-5+, A-8s+, A-5s, A-4s, K-9s+, Q-10s+, J-10s, 10-9s, 9-8s, A-10o+, K-Jo+ |
| HJ | 20% | 266 | adds 4-4, the other suited aces, Q-9s, J-9s, 10-8s, 9-7s, 8-7s, K-10o, Q-Jo |
| CO | 28% | 366 | adds 3-3, 2-2, K-5s+, Q-8s, J-8s, 8-6s, 7-6s, 6-5s, 5-4s, A-8o+, Q-10o, J-10o |
| BTN | 45% | 602 | adds every suited king and queen, J-5s+, 10-6s+, 9-6s, 8-5s, 7-5s, 6-4s, 5-3s, 4-3s, every offsuit ace, K-8o+, Q-9o, J-9o, 10-9o, 9-8o, 8-7o |
At a 9-max table, the three extra early seats play the under-the-gun range or tighter, and the lojack and hijack use the hijack range. If someone has already raised, play a much narrower range: re-raise the strongest hands and fold most of the rest. The poker positions guide explains every seat with a table map.
Starting hand odds
The chance of being dealt any specific starting hand is small; the chance of improving it on the flop is what decides most hands.
| Situation | Probability | Odds |
|---|---|---|
| Being dealt a pocket pair | 5.9% | 1 in 17 |
| Being dealt a specific pair, e.g. A-A | 0.45% | 1 in 221 |
| A-A or K-K | 0.9% | 1 in 111 |
| A-K, suited or offsuit | 1.2% | 1 in 83 |
| Any two suited cards | 23.5% | 1 in 4.25 |
| Premium hand: A-A, K-K, Q-Q, J-J or A-K | 3.0% | 1 in 33 |
| Flopping a set or better with a pocket pair | 11.8% | 1 in 8.5 |
| Pairing at least one of two unpaired cards on the flop | 32.4% | 1 in 3.1 |
| Flopping a flush with two suited cards | 0.84% | 1 in 119 |
| Flopping a flush draw with two suited cards | 10.9% | 1 in 9.1 |
For outs and odds on the turn and river, use the poker odds calculator. For which made hand beats which, see the hand rankings.
The worst starting hands
The worst starting hand in Texas Hold’em is 7-2 offsuit: the two cards are too far apart to make a straight together, cannot make a flush, and even a pair of sevens is easily beaten. It wins only 8.6% of the time against five random hands. Heads-up, 3-2 offsuit is slightly worse, because 7-2 at least has a seven as its high card.
| Hand | Win vs 1 | Win vs 5 |
|---|---|---|
| 3-2 offsuit | 32.3% | 9.0% |
| 4-2 offsuit | 33.2% | 9.8% |
| 6-2 offsuit | 34.1% | 9.2% |
| 5-2 offsuit | 34.3% | 10.1% |
| 7-2 offsuit | 34.6% | 8.6% |
Fold these from every seat. The only time you play them is from the big blind when nobody raised, because the flop is free. New to the game? Start with the Texas Hold’em rules and the beginner’s guide.
Starting hands FAQ
What are the best starting hands in Texas Hold’em?
The best starting hands are pocket aces (A-A), pocket kings (K-K), pocket queens (Q-Q), ace-king suited (A-Ks) and pocket jacks (J-J). Pocket aces win 85.2% of the time against one random hand and 49.2% against five random hands, more than any other hand.
How many starting hands are there in Texas Hold’em?
There are 169 different starting hands: 13 pocket pairs, 78 suited hands and 78 offsuit hands. Counting suits, there are 1,326 two-card combinations: 6 for each pair, 4 for each suited hand and 12 for each offsuit hand.
What percentage of hands should you play?
At a 6-max table a solid range is about 15% of hands under the gun, 20% from the hijack, 27% from the cutoff and 45% from the button, raising each time and folding the rest. At a 9-max table play tighter in the early seats. Beginners do well playing roughly one hand in five overall.
What is the worst starting hand in Texas Hold’em?
Seven-deuce offsuit (7-2o) is called the worst hand because it is the weakest against several players: it wins only 8.6% against five random hands. Against a single random hand, three-deuce offsuit (3-2o) is lower, winning 32.3% against 34.6% for 7-2o.
How much better are suited hands than offsuit?
Being suited adds about 2 to 4 percentage points of equity: A-K suited wins 67.0% against a random hand and A-K offsuit 65.4%; across all 78 pairs of hands the average gain is 2.7 points. It matters most for hands that need a flush to win, like small suited aces and suited connectors.
How often do you get pocket aces?
Once every 221 hands on average (0.45%). Any pocket pair comes once every 17 hands, and either aces or kings once every 111 hands.
Is A-K better than a pocket pair?
Before the flop A-K is a favourite over a random hand but usually not over a pair. Against queens, A-K suited wins about 46% of the time; against smaller pairs it is close to a coin flip, around 47% to 50%. Against aces or kings it is a big underdog because it shares their rank.
Does this chart work for Omaha?
No. Omaha players get four hole cards and must use exactly two of them, so hand values are much closer and the best hands are different. Use the Pot-Limit Omaha starting hands guide for that game.