Poker Top 10 Hands
As many of you know, Phil Hellmuth is one of the most successful Texas Hold 'em players of all time. I recently read his book, Play Poker Like the Pros, and was very impressed with his Hold 'em Strategy. It is not my intent to plagiarize his book, but no poker strategy site would be complete without mentioning the playing ability and strategy of Phil Hellmuth.
Therefore, I have chosen to reveal and comment on what Hellmuth calls his “Top 10.” When Hellmuth refers to his Top 10, he is talking about pocket card, starting hand requirements. One should note that this isn't a list of the only hands Hellmuth plays, but he does suggest that the poker player can make lots of money in low limit poker, by waiting on these cards and playing them aggressively.
Without further ado, Hellmuth's Top 10:
Texas Holdem – Top 10% Starting Hands. In Texas Hold’em, there are 169 unique combinations of preflop starting hands you can be dealt. This number is arrived at by grouping holdings into pairs, suited cards and offsuit cards, and considering that preflop specific suits (e.g. Hearts vs diamonds) don’t yet have value. Poker hands from highest to lowest 1. Royal flush A, K, Q, J, 10, all the same suit. Straight flush Five cards in a sequence, all in the same suit.
1. A-A
2. K-K
3. Q-Q
Poker Top 10 Hands Ever
4. A-K suited
5. J-J
6. 10-10
7. 9-9
8. 8-8
9. A-Q suited
10. 7-7
Hellmuth submits that these 10 hands should be the only pocket cards played by the beginner in low limit Texas Hold 'em. This makes the game much simpler before the flop, however, as you can probably guess, the tricks of how to play these 10 hands after the flop can get complicated.
As a general rule though, bet these top 10 hands aggressively. The higher in the ranking, the more aggressively they should be played. Your strategy after the flop will be determined by what hits the board and the actions of your opponents.
Play these top 10 right in low limit Hold 'em games and you will make money. As you build your bankroll and your confidence, you can increase your starting hand requirements.
Good Luck!
The Roving Rounder
You will of course need to be able to recognise a good initial set of pocket cards when you are playing poker at either an online poker site or a land based poker playing venue, and when you are playing the world’s most popular poker game, that being the game of Texas Hold’em Poker there are a lot of different hands you can end up with.
Below you will find the top 10 poker hands which are ranked in order of their value, and as such you will find the highest ranked Texas Hold’em Poker hands along with the following nine other top ranked hands.
Remember that many sites offer a Bad Beat Jackpot when you get a four of a kind hand dealt out to you which then gets beaten by a Royal Flush, so look out for sites that offer this kind of bonus payout when you are playing online or even in a land based venue.
The very best hand you can get when playing Texas Hold ‘Em Poker is of course a Royal Flush you will have to get the following cards all to complete this top paying hand in the same suit and when you do you should win the pot!
Poker Top 10 Hands Challenge
The cards that make up a Royal Flush are the Ten, Jack, Queen, King and Ace which as mentioned should all be in the same matching suit!
The next best ranked poker hand that can be achieved whenever you are playing the popular poker variant that is Texas Hold ‘Em Poker is called a Straight Flush hand, and this is any sequence of consecutive valued cards that must all share the very same suit, so a Five, Six, Seven, Eight and Nine all in the suit of Clubs for example is one of these Straight Flush hands!
Moving on to the next raked hand which you will be hoping is dealt out to you when you are playing Texas Hold ‘Em Poker either online or in a land based poker venues is what is known as a four of a kind hand, the description of this highly ranked poker hand gives you something of an indication of what it is, and it is any set of four cards that are the same, so if you get four 8 cards then you have a four of a kind hand.
When you are playing Texas Hold ‘Em Poker you will come across a hand that is known as a full house, this kind of poker hand consists of one pair of cards along with three other cards that are all the same, so if you get dealt a pair of sixes for example along with three five cards then this is one of these Full House hands and you have a Full House! This is a fairly strong hand and as such you will see it taking the prize pot quite often.
When you are playing the poker game variant of Texas Hold ‘Em Poker if you are lucky enough to get any five cards making up your final hand that all share the same suit then you have what is known in the industry as a Flush hand, the cards do not need to be in any order, as long as your five cards all share the very same suit then you have a Flush hand which is not a bad hand to have and play on with!
A Straight is simply a set of cards which are consecutive in value, such as a 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, they can be in any suit, and as long as they are consecutive then you have a Straight Hand, should the cards all share the same suit then you have the higher values Straight Flush listed above.
When playing Texas Hold ‘Em Poker if you get two pairs which can be any set of two matching cards then you have a two pair hand, so a pair of 5’s and a pair of 9’s along with any other card will make up this hand, however you will not necessarily be holding one of the strongest hands when you get dealt such a hand so do consider whether your hand is going to be strong enough to win when dealt such a hand.
You will get one pair as part of your final head very often when playing the Texas Hold ‘Em Poker game variant and this hand should never be taken as a definite winning hand for there are, as you can see above, many stronger hands that can and will beat a pair, for reference any two cards that are the same will make up a pair when you are playing Texas Hold ‘Em Poker such as two 6’s or two King’s.
Top 10 Starting Poker Hands
When you are playing Texas Hold ‘Em Poker and you hand is made up of different un-matching cards then you will have a what is known as a High Card hand, the high valued card in your hand is what the value of this type of hand will be and when dealt such a hand you will be unlikely to win the pot unless you can bluff your way to winning it, which is what a lot of players will do. You really should only consider playing on with a High Card hand if it contains an Ace or at the very least a King card!