In this series of articles I shall be looking at how to play the first two cards in Texas Hold ‘Em, play after the flop and finally play on fourth and fifth streets. The first and most important decision you will have to consider is - should I play this hand at all? So let’s start with the first two cards. The FirstTwo Cards
Hold ‘Em, like five-card stud (now rarely played), offers the player only two cards before he has to make his first decision. Seven-card stud offers three, Omaha four (at least - some forms give five or even six cards), and, in the granddaddy of them all, draw poker, you see five cards before you have to make a decision. However, in Hold ‘Em we need only worry about the first two cards. The number of different combinations of two-card hands is really quite small. For this reason, most poker books offer tables detailing every possible combination and what to do with it. I don’t intend to follow that route here because I consider it to be of limited value to learn a table by rote. In any case, many of these hands have been subject to endless debate in technical circles ever since the first hand rankings appeared in David Sklansky’s seminal work Hold ‘Em Poker in 1976. So here are some general tips.

Pairs
These are valuable holdings and are always tempting to play.You’ll see a pair about once in every sixteen hands so they have considerable scarcity value. A lowly pair of 3’s may not look much, but it’s a big hand if the flop comes an innocuous looking K-6-3. If somebody has made two kings, possibly holding A-K, you’re going to get plenty of action against your trip threes. So pairs are often worth playing because, if you are lucky enough to flop trips, it will be very hard for your opponents to know that you have made a strong hand.
However, small pairs (8s and below) can become an expensive drain on your bankroll if you are continually putting in a lot of money to see the flop (i.e. call the bet to stay in the game and’ see’ what the flop will bring). Since a pair will make trips on the flop only about one time in eight (7/1 odds), it can seem a very long time between payoffs.
Medium pairs have more value because there is the chance that the flop will come with no high cards, giving you a strong hand. For example, two 9s are good if the flop is 8-7-3. Here you would have what is referred to as an’overpair’ as your pair is bigger than the highest card on the flop. But remember that it is very much odds against getting a low flop like this one. Here’s a helpful mental guide for evaluating pairs. Aces, kings and queens are big pairs. Jacks, 10s and 9s are medium pairs. Anything below is a small pair. This might help you to not get too carried away with a pair of jacks, one of the classic trap hands in Hold ‘Em. Supposedly, in the old days in Texas, if an opponent claimed he had ‘a small pair’ it was kings. The point being made, and only half in jest, is that some players consider only A-A to be a big pair, all other pairs being small.

Ace-High Kicker
Starting cards of an ace with a high kicker (i.e. A-K, A-Q, A-J, A-10) are the bread-and-butter Hold ‘Em hands that win a lot of pots. Most of them are playable, especially if they are suited, but nevertheless they require caution when considering the kicker. Ace- king is playable in almost all occasions. If you flop an ace or a king, it must be the top pair and it must be the best kicker.
However, ace-queen is troublesome. A classic situation is where a player raises and you call with ace-queen. The flop comes with an ace and two ‘rags’ (small or useless cards). If your opponent bets out again, what do you do? If he has ace-king, things are bleak for you. You must hit your queen to win. In fact, Doyle Brunson, who was world champion in 1976 and 1977, has said that he considers ace-queen just about his least favourite hand. Ace-jack and ace-l0 are easier to’ get away from’ if an ace flops because it is more likely they will be beaten.

Part 2