Best Hands

Top 40 Best Starting Hands
There are 1,326 possible combinations of two pocket/hole cards that can be dealt from a standard 52-card deck in Texas Hold'em poker. Of these the top thirty hands are as follows. In heads-up games between two players, hands lower in the list are considered stronger than in multiple player games.

[Key: A=ace, K=king, Q=queen, J=jack, T=ten, numbers=value on card, s=suited (otherwise unsuited. Suited is always better than unsuited)]

1. AA	11. ATs	21. KQ	31. T9s
2. KK	12. KJs	22. 77	32. A4s
3. QQ	13. AQ	23. JTs	33. Q9s
4. JJ	14. 99	24. A8s	34. J9s
5. AKs	15. QJs	25. K9s	35. QJ
6. TT	16. KTs	26. AT	36. A6s
7. AQs	17. 88	27. A5s	37. 55
8. AJs	18. QTs	28. A7s	38. A3s
9. AK	19. A9s	29. KJ	39. K8s
10. KQs	20. AJ	30. 66	40. KT

The above are from pokerroom.com (also on Wikipedia) and are based on the estimated value of cards as demonstrated by statistics of winning hands in online play. We have seen the order shift slightly as new statistics become available. These rankings are those with an EV (estimated value or profit in big bets) of more than 0: that is, from 2.32 for AA to 0.01 for the KT. Combinations beyond the KT have a negative value given by Poker Room possibly indicating that they produce losses on average (however, some player win with low hands because of the success of her or his strategy or method of playing).

Given that the above 40 hands are considered the best of a possible 1,326 possible combinations of two pocket/hole cards (40:1326 = 1:33), they would normally be considered hands with which to make a bet rather than hands to fold. The ratio also shows that if the list were the only guide to bet or fold, the player would fold 33 times more often. A tight or conservative player might reduce the list of playable hands to, say, a top 20 in her or his estimation (different players develop custom lists - see Phil Hellmuth's list below) and more loose or aggressive players may expand the list and rely on inter-personal strategy rather than odds - in order to succeed in winning the hand. When players expose their hands, say after a showdown, other players can gauge the temperament with they are approaching the game on that day.

Phil Hellmuth's Top 30 Starting Hands

Tier	Hands	Category
1.	AA, KK, AKs, QQ, AK	Top 12 Hands
2.	JJ, TT, 99	(cont.)
3.	88, 77, AQs, AQ	(cont.)
4.	AJs, ATs, A9s, A8s	Majority Play Hands
5.	A7s, A6s, A5s, A4s, A3s, A2s, KQs, KQ	(cont.)
6.	QJs, JTs, T9s, 98s, 87s, 76s, 65s	Suited Connectors

We heard one well-known player say on a TV program of a tournament game that he doesn't care about stats if he is the chip leader - when he will go all-in with marginal hands in order to take the chance and eliminate the short-stack (the player with the lowest value of chips).