I've read multiple poker forums and blogs that have been
extremely critical of the advice on limit holdem in Phil Hellmuth's
book Play Poker Like the Pros. I do not share the common
disdain for Hellmuth's book, strategy, or plays. In fact, his
guidelines for which starting hands to play in no limit holdem
helped my game tremendously, since they were both easily understood
and easily remembered.
Sophisticated players tend to sneer at easily remembered and
understood strategies, but I think they're a boon to new players in
particular. Hellmuth recommends playing only the top 15 starting
hands in no limit holdem, and this super-tight starting hand
strategy preflop will result in a better-than-average chance of
picking up the blinds or the pot on the occasions when a player is
actually in a pot. And he does provide guidelines for going beyond
those top 15 starting hands and loosening up to play more hands too.
Top 15 Starting Hands in No Limit, per Phil Hellmuth
- Any Pair. (There are 13 possible pairs you can start with,
22's through AA's. The higher the better.)
- Any Ace-King or Ace-Queen.
That's it. The entire top 15 starting hands for no limit holdem
from Phil Hellmuth. If you have a problem remembering these starting
hand guidelines, you should probably consider another game, like
bingo or slot machines.
How to Play the Top 15 Starting Hands
Top 4 Hands
The top 4 hands are AK, QQ, KK, and AA. Phil's recommendation is
to go all-in preflop if you have any of these hands. His only caveat
here is that if you're facing a supertight, passive player who has
raised or re-raised, you might be cautious with the QQ or AK, since
the weak-tight player probably has AA or KK.
Hellmuth also talks about trapping players with these big hands.
I'm a fan of this theory, especially if I'm in early position at a
loose aggressive table. If I have one of these hands in that
situation I'll limp in, since I'm reasonably sure I will get raised
by someone after me who has a weaker hand. At that point I can
re-raise all-in. This is great when it works out, and it sucks when
it doesn't.
Next 3 Best Starting Hands
Pairs of 99's, TT's, and JJ's are the next mini-grouping, and
Phil recommends playing these strong preflop, either opening with a
raise or re-raising a raiser. A standard raise in no limit holdem is
either 3 or 4 times the big blind, or the size of the pot if it's
already been raised. Overcards on the flop spell troubel for these
hands though.
The Bottom 8 of the Top 15
Phil Hellmuth offers 3 theories about how to play AQ and any pair
of 88's or less before the flop:
- They're worth raising if you're opening the pot with, and
they're worth calling one raise with. You've got a good chance
of winning the pot preflop with these hands if you play them
aggressively too, which is one approach Phil takes. This seems
to be Hellmuth's approach: a selectively aggressive approach.
- They're worth seeing a flop for the call of one raise, but
they're not necessarily such a great hand to try to win the pot
preflop with. He credits this approach to Frank Henderson.
- You should always raise, re-raise, and play these hands like
a maniac preflop, to pick up as many pots preflop as you can.
This is how Phil says his opponents expect him to play, so he
doesn't usually play this way. He calls it megalomaniac play.
More Starting Hand Possibilities for More Experienced No Limit
Holdem Players
The next type of starting hand that Phil Hellmuth recommends
adding to your starting hand repertoire is suited aces. A suited ace
is any ace with a smaller card of the same suit. His advice is to
try not to lose a lot of money if you hit a pair of aces, and hope
for that ace high flush.
He also talks about playing suited connectors, but he seems to
think that suited connectors are very tricky, hard hands to play in
no limit holdem. This is an interesting mindset, and I read a lot of
poker writers who seem to prefer suited connectors to almost any
other starting hand. For the most part, he suggests calling raises
preflop with suited connectors and hoping to hit a favorable flop.
Obviously the higher the lower card in the Ax suited situation,
the better the hand. And the higher the suited connectors, the
better off you are preflop. (23 suited and 34 suited aren't great
hands preflop, no matter what, but 10J and JQ suited are pretty
doggone good.)
A Final Note
This is an extremely simplified discussion of what Phil Hellmuth
discusses in his chapter on no limit holdem strategy. There are a
lot more insights into the actual play of these hands preflop and
post-flop in the book, and there are also actual hands from pro
players discussed, along with advice from Phil on how to develop
your own style at no limit holdem.
In other words, I recommend reading Phil's book, and I don't
recommend trying to use this article as a substitute. But with any
luck, if you're a total beginner, this article will help you think
about starting hands in no limit holdem a little more clearly than
you did before.
You might also be interested in my earlier article about
Texas holdem starting hands, even though it was written more
with limit holdem in mind.
Sklansky's tournament system from his book Tournament Poker
for Advanced Players might also be interesting reading.
Another good skill for players new to the game is learning to
calculate pot odds and card odds. Beginners might even need to
start by learning all the
poker hand rankings.
This page was last updated on January 5, 2006.
