Texas Hold'em Starting Hand Statistics

A good strategy in Texas Hold'em poker must include a good grasp of poker mathematics. By doing so, one could easily deduce the possibility of the opponent's hands even if they are not showing any tells.

One of the valuable aspects of Texas Hold'em poker mathematics is the starting hand statistics. Through knowing the probability of a starting hand, one could have an idea of what the opponents are holding even if you are in the early position.

Here we will take a close look at how to compute for the possibility of each starting hand.

Let us start by dealing with the easily known numbers: two cards are dealt as starting hands in Texas Hold'em poker, and there are 52 cards in each deck. Thus, the first card will be any of the 52 cards, and the second card will be any of the remaining 51 cards.

That will give us 52 x 51 = 2652 possible combinations. But since the order of the cards in a hand does not matter in Texas Hold'em (e.g. a 10 - Jack is the same as a Jack - 10), we can further reduce this number by dividing it into two.

2652 divided by 2 will give us the result of 1326 possible starting hands. This is still a really large number, and it will do you no good if it remains that way. To make this a more significant number, we need to use more precise poker mathematics in order to have a more particular starting hand statistics.

Since suits in Texas Hold'em poker have no value (a 10 of spades - Jack of hearts is similar to a 10 of hearts - Jack of spades), we can still reduce the number into 169 possible starting hands. For this number to be more useful, we need to group it into the important and valuable aspects of a starting hand: are they made (pairs), are they suited (suited or unsuited).

There are 13 made hands (or 'pocket pairs') because there are 13 distinct ranks of cards. To compute for how many suited and unsuited hands there could possibly be, we take 13 distinct cards that could be dealt and multiply it to the remaining 12 cards and we get 156.

We divide this by two (one possibility that the hand is suited and one possibility that the hand is unsuited), and we get 78. Thus, there are 78 suited hands and 78 unsuited starting hands. We add 13, 78, and 78, and we get the total result of 169.

Keep in mind that these are still general values. Knowing them, however, is still valuable. Just remember that there are 13 possible pocket pairs, 78 suited starting hands, and 78 unsuited starting hands. Use this starting hand statistics with other poker strategies and you will surely be on the top of your game.