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| Hands: | Early Position | Middle Position | Late Position | The Blinds |
| AA-JJ | R-R-R | R-R-R | R-R-R | R-R-R |
| TT | R-R-F | R-R-C | R-R-C | R-R-C |
| 99-22 | F-C-C | C-C-C | R-C-C | R-C-C |
| AK | R-R-R | R-R-R | R-R-R | R-R-R |
| AQ | R-R-F | R-R-C | R-R-C | R-R-C |
| AJ | F-F-F | R-R-F | R-R-F | R-R-F |
| AT | F-F-F | F-F-F | R-C-F | R-C-F |
| A9s-A2s | F-F-F | F-F-F | R-C-F | R-C-F |
| KQ | F-F-F | R-R-F | R-R-F | R-R-F |
| KJ-KT | F-F-F | F-F-F | R-C-F | R-C-F |
| QJ-QT | F-F-F | F-F-F | R-C-F | R-C-F |
| JT | F-F-F | F-F-F | R-C-F | R-C-F |
| T9s-54s | F-F-F | C-C-F | R-C-F | R-C-F |
How to use the Starting Hand Chart (SHC).
First and foremost you mustn´t view the SHC as an exact road map of how to play NL poker. Playing NL poker is much more fluid than and not as static as regular limit poker due to the fact that chip-stacks, the amount of pressure and the play of your opponents have way more influence. When working with our chart, think of it as a basic guideline for newcomers, players who want to switch to NL Hold´em or players who are used to losing money and want to reshape their game.
When playing NLHE, it´s extremely important to give your opponents different looks in order to prevent that they are able to read you, so moving away from the SHC is crucial once you understood its mechanics and the reasoning behind it. For example, if you used to play a hand like K9s (which is not on the SHC) because it is suited, then you probably don´t know much about Poker and lost money on those marginal hands in the long run. In that case, the SHC will help you to decrease the amount of trash-hands you are playing. Once you understood this aspect, you might think about switching your style up and playing more aggressively from time to time in order to cash in on the tight image you generated by sticking to our SHC. Then, a raise with K9s in position in order to steal the pot might make sense, especially when you found out that the other players on the table respect your moves and don´t excessively protect their blinds.
But as I mentioned before, if you´re new to or previously lost money on NLHE, sticking to the SHC at first is your best chance of long-term success. Since most of these players have a problem of properly selecting the hands they want to play and usually get involved in way too many hands, the concept behind our SHC is mainly to make players tighten up their game.
Now, how do you work with the chart?
When looking at it, you see two different columns. One is representing the whole cards that have been dealt to you and the other stands for the position on the table you find yourself in. Be aware that the SHC only deals with pre-flop values, which means it doesn´t matter if your hand is very strong pre-flop if the board probably weakens your situation.
The first thing you have to do is to check the cards you´ve been dealt. That´s by far the easiest part as you have to consider every hand that´s not on the SHC a “trash hand”. Every trash hand is going to be folded. The second aspect you have to consider is the position you´re in on the table. If you consider a table of nine players, you have the following distribution of positions:
Early position: 2 positions called “Under the gun” (UTG) and “Under the gun +1”. The player sitting UTG is the one immediately located to the left of the BB and therefore is the first to act after the whole-cards have been dealt.
Middle position: 3 positions called middle position 1, 2 and 3. They are located between UTG + 1 and the Cut Off position.
Late position: 2 positions called Button and Cut Off. When the dealer button is in front of you, you´re the last player to act before the blinds pre-flop and the last player to act after the flop has been dealt. The Cut Off-position is the spot seated directly to the right of the dealer-button. The player sitting there is the second to last player to act before the blinds pre-flop and the second to last player to act after the flop has been dealt.
Blinds: 2 positions called Small Blind and Big Blind. As you know, the BB is forced to invest a full bet and the SB has to give up half of it. The blinds are the last ones to act before the flop and the first ones after the flop.
After identifying your hand and determining your position, you then find a three letter combination when looking at the SHC. Every letter is an abbreviation of the action you should take. Depending on your hand, your position and the situation you find yourself in, you have the option of (F)olding, (C)alling ((C)ecking in some situations when you already paid the BB) or (R)aising.
When looking at the matrix, you see three different letters, as previously mentioned. Every letter, and therefore every recommended move, reflects the previous action on the table during the hand:
The first letter in every column represents the scenario of everybody folding their hands, meaning you would be the first person betting.
The second letter represents the scenario of having at least one caller before you.
The third letter represents the scenario of having a raise before you.
Now that you know how to read the SHC, let me give you a brief example:
Let´s assume you´re playing in a full ring-game containing 9 seats. The hand that has been dealt to you is KJs and you´re sitting on the Cut Off-position, meaning the button is located directly to your left. In order to use our SHC you take a look at the “Hands” column and find the field “KJ-KT”. Then you move to the right to the field “Late position” and find the following letters: “R-C-F”. In such a situation, you raise that hand when you´re the first one getting involved in the hand, you call when you´ve seen at least another opponent call and you fold your hand if another player raised before you.
To conclude this section, I want to remind everybody that our NL SHC is meant to help inexperienced and previously non-successful NLHE players playing in micro and medium blind levels. Additionally, moving away from the SHC when the situation is right might help you in your quest to catch your opponents off guard. However, not following the SHC should be the exception to the rule, not the rule itself.
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First and foremost you mustn´t view the SHC as an exact road map of how to play NL poker. Playing NL poker is much more fluid than and not as static as regular limit poker due to the fact that chip-stacks, the amount of pressure and the play of your opponents have way more influence. When working with our chart, think of it as a basic guideline for newcomers, players who want to switch to NL Hold´em or players who are used to losing money and want to reshape their game.
When playing NLHE, it´s extremely important to give your opponents different looks in order to prevent that they are able to read you, so moving away from the SHC is crucial once you understood its mechanics and the reasoning behind it. For example, if you used to play a hand like K9s (which is not on the SHC) because it is suited, then you probably don´t know much about Poker and lost money on those marginal hands in the long run. In that case, the SHC will help you to decrease the amount of trash-hands you are playing. Once you understood this aspect, you might think about switching your style up and playing more aggressively from time to time in order to cash in on the tight image you generated by sticking to our SHC. Then, a raise with K9s in position in order to steal the pot might make sense, especially when you found out that the other players on the table respect your moves and don´t excessively protect their blinds.
But as I mentioned before, if you´re new to or previously lost money on NLHE, sticking to the SHC at first is your best chance of long-term success. Since most of these players have a problem of properly selecting the hands they want to play and usually get involved in way too many hands, the concept behind our SHC is mainly to make players tighten up their game.
Now, how do you work with the chart?
When looking at it, you see two different columns. One is representing the whole cards that have been dealt to you and the other stands for the position on the table you find yourself in. Be aware that the SHC only deals with pre-flop values, which means it doesn´t matter if your hand is very strong pre-flop if the board probably weakens your situation.
The first thing you have to do is to check the cards you´ve been dealt. That´s by far the easiest part as you have to consider every hand that´s not on the SHC a “trash hand”. Every trash hand is going to be folded. The second aspect you have to consider is the position you´re in on the table. If you consider a table of nine players, you have the following distribution of positions:
Early position: 2 positions called “Under the gun” (UTG) and “Under the gun +1”. The player sitting UTG is the one immediately located to the left of the BB and therefore is the first to act after the whole-cards have been dealt.
Middle position: 3 positions called middle position 1, 2 and 3. They are located between UTG + 1 and the Cut Off position.
Late position: 2 positions called Button and Cut Off. When the dealer button is in front of you, you´re the last player to act before the blinds pre-flop and the last player to act after the flop has been dealt. The Cut Off-position is the spot seated directly to the right of the dealer-button. The player sitting there is the second to last player to act before the blinds pre-flop and the second to last player to act after the flop has been dealt.
Blinds: 2 positions called Small Blind and Big Blind. As you know, the BB is forced to invest a full bet and the SB has to give up half of it. The blinds are the last ones to act before the flop and the first ones after the flop.
After identifying your hand and determining your position, you then find a three letter combination when looking at the SHC. Every letter is an abbreviation of the action you should take. Depending on your hand, your position and the situation you find yourself in, you have the option of (F)olding, (C)alling ((C)ecking in some situations when you already paid the BB) or (R)aising.
When looking at the matrix, you see three different letters, as previously mentioned. Every letter, and therefore every recommended move, reflects the previous action on the table during the hand:
The first letter in every column represents the scenario of everybody folding their hands, meaning you would be the first person betting.
The second letter represents the scenario of having at least one caller before you.
The third letter represents the scenario of having a raise before you.
Now that you know how to read the SHC, let me give you a brief example:
Let´s assume you´re playing in a full ring-game containing 9 seats. The hand that has been dealt to you is KJs and you´re sitting on the Cut Off-position, meaning the button is located directly to your left. In order to use our SHC you take a look at the “Hands” column and find the field “KJ-KT”. Then you move to the right to the field “Late position” and find the following letters: “R-C-F”. In such a situation, you raise that hand when you´re the first one getting involved in the hand, you call when you´ve seen at least another opponent call and you fold your hand if another player raised before you.
To conclude this section, I want to remind everybody that our NL SHC is meant to help inexperienced and previously non-successful NLHE players playing in micro and medium blind levels. Additionally, moving away from the SHC when the situation is right might help you in your quest to catch your opponents off guard. However, not following the SHC should be the exception to the rule, not the rule itself.
Back to top