Winning Poker Hands | How To Maximize Your Winrate
Alright! Just what you were looking for – a list of the best poker hands to play!
Well, not quite.
Let’s talk about what makes a winning poker hand: If it were as easy as following a list, then the top poker pros wouldn’t have much of an advantage, would they?
I always advise beginning players to only play premium starting hands. Are these winning hands?
Not exactly. They’re generally the most profitable hands for beginners, but that isn’t quite the same thing.
Playing small suited connectors may be a winning poker hand for Daniel Negreanu…in certain situations. Q-10 may be a winning hand for Phil Hellmuth in a tournament, but not in a ring game, from early position, or even middle position.
Do you sense that we’re getting closer to the answer?
Here it is: A winning poker hand is any hand that has a positive expected value when played the same way under the same circumstances over thousands of hands.
Ugh. That’s not as much fun as simple list, is it?
Actually, it is. In fact, it’s way more fun. Because learning how to identify and correctly play winning hands is the whole point of becoming a winning poker player.
A list of winning poker hands would not only contain an almost infinite number of combinations, but also every player’s own personal list of winning hands would be different.
To further complicate matters, each individual player’s personal list would change over time as his skills improve or deteriorate. (Yes, deterioration can occur due to age, playing while tired, tilt or other factors.)
How do you identify your own winning hands? By keeping a database of your play and reviewing it.
If you’re an online player, this is relatively easy – almost all poker sites record your hand histories for you. Pop it into a software program like Poker Tracker, Holdem Manager or Poker Stat and you can break down and analyze the information to see which hands are the most profitable for you.
If you’re a brick and mortar player it takes more work. You’ll need to take a notebook to your games and build a spreadsheet based on the information at a later time.
It might seem like drudgery, but you’ll be amazed at how many unprofitable hands you’re playing. Looking at hard data is the best way to cut through the B.S. you tell yourself to justify playing hands you shouldn’t. No need to beat yourself up over it – we all do it. Just get in there and fix it. Your bankroll will thank you.
Points To Take Home
- Beginners should play extremely tight and only the best hands - Read my article on Best Texas Holdem Starting Hands.
- Intermediate players should play tight and maybe add in some hands in late position - but be careful because it can easily lead to overconfidence while running good and adding way too many hands!
- Advanced players - Why are you even reading this? You know what to do!
- Get Poker Tracker or Holdem Manager and track your statistics. Those two are the best out there at the moment. It has a learning curve but learning how to use a piece of software that helps you evaluate your winning poker hands is HUGE!
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