Strong and Weak Texas Holdem Hands

Holdem poker players often see the end from the beginning. The saying that all's well that ends well needs to be prefixed with "All that starts well" when applied to Holdem hands.

Holdem poker is founded on a strong starting hand. Thus, almost all literature materials deal with selecting a strong starting hand to determine a win, especially online poker literature. Identifying strong and weak starting hands is an essential and there are various principle involved in this. Part of the challenge in Holdem is the principle of relative strength and weakness of a hand. No hand is absolutely strong to ensure taking the pot. Pots could be stolen in the wink of an eye.

Strong hands in weak players are often as good as weak hands. Strong hands may still end up raking in little or even zero winnings from the pot if we're not playing smartly. Holdem poker, especially its no-limit variant, is more than getting lucky to have the best hand in a game. It's more about having enough brains to outwit players with even the highest hands. This is where bluffing and poker tells come in. Weak hands can end up taking a huge pot against high hands if the poker player knows how to play with mediocre hands well and bluff everybody into folding in the end, without having to show anything for it. And they actually get away with it—leaving all the other players wondering what really hit them.

Positioning is a delicate matter that serious players ought to understand. Betting, raising, re-raising, folding, and all the other important poker decisions should be grounded on a solid understanding of positioning. Positioning dictates how we would play, how much and when to bet, call, raise, and fold in Holdem. Holdem hands are actually valued on the position of the player. Bad hands may still win if the player knows how to exploit one's position. Hence, some say positioning is everything in Holdem, and Holdem hands are mere bonuses for added points in winning.

Each Holdem position—early, middle, and late positioning—has a lot to do with what value our Holdem hands would have in a game. Early position keeps us giving free hints to other players, so we play tight. Middle position keeps us waiting for before and after poker situations developing before us, and kind of makes run away from and run after players. Late positioning is what everybody wants.

Texas Holdem, indeed, is the grandest poker of all.