Texas Holdem Starting Hands — Chart & Beginner’s Guide

The poker starting hands chart groups all two-card hand types in a 13 × 13 matrix. Green marks premium hands, amber marks conditional hands, and unshaded cells mark default folds. Hover or tap for details. These study categories are not exact ranges for every table size or stack.

The printable poker cheat sheet uses the same groups in A4, Letter, or pocket format. Read the explanations here, then keep the printed grid as a reminder. Always consider the current pot before playing.

Ranks run from ace to two along both edges: T means ten, J jack, Q queen, K king. Match your ranks, then use the diagonal and s or o suffix to find the correct hand.

Pairs sit on the diagonal, from AA to 22, with no suited or offsuit suffix. Large pairs can stay strong without improving; small pairs often depend on the board. Sharing the word “pair” does not make them equally playable.

Suited hands sit above the diagonal and end in s: AKs means ace-king suited; 98s means nine-eight suited. All four suits share a cell because suits do not outrank each other. Flush potential does not remove problems caused by low ranks or large gaps.

Offsuit hands sit below the diagonal and end in o: AKo is ace-king in different suits. AKs has extra flush potential despite sharing the same ranks. Weak offsuit aces can make top pair and lose to a better kicker.

These groups describe a beginner baseline. Read the application section before using them in a raised pot: a colour describes a family of hands, not every opponent or bet size.

Green cells are premium — the top tier of this cheat sheet. Big pairs from sevens up, the strong suited broadways — ace-king, ace-queen, ace-jack, ace-ten, king-queen, king-jack and queen-jack — plus ace-king and ace-queen offsuit. Treat these as opening candidates, then consider your seat and the action. Facing a raise, assess the specific hand rather than automatically re-raising the entire group. They hold value out of position because they either make top pair with the best kicker or flop a strong draw. About 7.5 percent of dealt hands land in this group, so folding often before the flop is normal rather than passive.

Amber cells are conditional. Small pairs, the suited aces, suited connectors such as nine-eight and seven-six, and the offsuit broadways all play well when you get in cheaply with position. The cheat sheet marks them amber for a reason: open them when the pot is still unopened and you sit in middle or late seat. Fold them to a raise from an early position: a small pair that wins mainly by flopping a set needs a cheap entry and deep stacks to be worth it, and offsuit broadways are the hands most often dominated by the exact range that raised. Treat the amber tier of the cheat sheet as position-dependent, never automatic.

Blank cells go in the muck preflop, and that is most of the grid. Offsuit hands with a gap, weak aces like ace-six offsuit, and anything shaped like king-four or queen-three are the hands that make expensive second-best pairs. The trap is the ace: hitting it gives you top pair with a kicker that loses to every better ace still in the pot. If you take one rule from this cheat sheet, take this one — folding these hands is not tight play, it is the cheapest improvement available to a new player.

This is FlopKit’s editorial beginner classification, not a copied solver output or a validated opening range. No fixed player count, effective stack, rake or raise size was used to generate it. Treat the colours as study prompts for unopened no-limit pots, not instructions to open every green cell in every seat. Heads-up, six-max and full-ring ranges differ; shallow-stack tournament decisions also need separate guidance.

The frequency is a combination count, not a simulation: each pair represents six suit combinations, each suited type four, and each offsuit type twelve. The green group contains 100 of 1,326 equally likely two-card deals, or 7.5%. The grid, homepage frequency and printable sheet all use the same hand definitions.

These Texas Hold'em starting-hand categories change with position and previous action. “Any seat” does not mean every green hand should face unlimited raises. “Fold preflop” is a default for investing chips, not an instruction to fold when checking is free.

An unopened pot means everyone before you has folded; only the blinds are committed. Early position leaves more players behind who can call or raise. Be cautious at the green group's edges: pocket sevens and suited queen-jack need more judgement than pocket aces.

From middle position, fewer players remain behind you, making some amber hands more practical in unopened pots. The cutoff and button usually let you act late after the flop, helping suited connectors and smaller pairs. Consider those opportunities without playing every amber cell.

The blinds act late preflop but usually early afterwards. Paying a blind does not make another call compulsory. In a Texas Hold Em game where nobody raises, the big blind can check with a weak hand instead of adding chips.

Once someone raises, stop treating the grid as a direct instruction. A raise from an early seat usually represents a different range from an opening raise on the button. Compare the price, who still acts behind you, and the effective stack: the smaller stack between you and the opponent you expect to play against. A small pair seeking a set needs enough potential reward to justify the call.

Do not automatically re-raise every premium-labelled hand. Aces and kings differ greatly from sevens or ace-queen when facing strong action. Against a raise and another re-raise, the original opening categories no longer describe the decision. This chart also does not provide short-stack tournament shove ranges. For the action order and meanings of fold, call, and raise, read how to play Texas Holdem.

Starting-hand selection comes before the flop. Keep the full Texas Hold’em cheat sheet nearby for the rest of a hand, or consult poker hand rankings when you need to compare completed five-card hands at showdown. Use the grid here to study the decisions that happen before those community cards arrive.