Of
course, even without a computer you probably can
guess what the best two cards are. By the way these
are always the best two cards. They are the best in
loose games, in tight games, in passive games, in
aggressive games.
(Aces,
Bullets, American Airlines, Pocket Rockets)
What may
come as a surprise is what the worst starting hand
is (in general). It's not 2c 3h. It's not 5h 3d.:
NOTE:
Here, and in general, if two cards are the same suit
(Ah Kh) the point is that the hand is suited. If
they aren't then the hand is unsuited. So, while
above 7c 2h is listed you can trust that 7d 2s is an
equally bad investment of your money.
Conventions
Also
note the convention used for listing cards in the
text (and widely accepted on the internet). The
rank of the card is listed as 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,
9, T, J, Q, K, A and the suit is listed as h(earts),
d(iamonds), c(lubs), s(pades). So Ad Qh is the Ace
of Diamonds with the Queen of Hearts. Also a
shortcut notation for suited vs. unsuited cards is
KQ and KQs. In the first case we are talking about
King and Queen offsuit and in the second (KQs) we
mean King and Queen suited.
One
special case is AXs, KXs, and QXs. These terms
refer to suited Aces, Kings and Queens. The X means
that any second card applies as long as it is of the
same suit as the Ace. So if you have the Ah (Ace of
Hearts) then all the following second cards fall
into AXs: 2h, 3h, 4h, 5h, 6h, 7h, 8h, 9h, Th, Jh, Qh,
Kh.
One
final note about hand rankings...
7 2 is
the worst hand in a multi-way pot (a pot with more
than 4 opponents seeing the flop). This is an
important distinction. Many hands play "better" in
multi way pots and many play worse. 3 2 is the
worst hand in a heads up match, but you don't need
to worry much about that since you will be involved
in very few heads up matches in a low limit game.
This is
also a good reason to not overvalue AK unsuited
(although it can and does win and should be played)
and to definitely value AKs because it has a
tremendous number of ways to win. Likewise KQs, JTs,
and even 9Ts are very good multi-way hands and if
there are several callers up front you should not be
afraid to play these hands even in the face of a
raise or two before the flop (especially if the
raisers are very loose).
