Poker is the most famous casino game that is played against other people rather than against the house. For this reason, it’s possible to find an edge over the crowd, especially if you spend time learning how to be strategic. The greater your edge, the greater your chances of winning games in the long run.

Having said that, it’s not easy to get ahead in poker, especially at the higher stakes, where most of your opponents will have a solid grasp of the fundamentals and some will know how to turn up the heat with advanced strategy.

If you’re just starting out on your journey, you’ve got a long way to go. But don’t let that put you off. The best place to start is by learning about hand rankings and starting hand selection.

Hand rankings in poker

You won’t get too far in poker if you don’t understand the hand rankings. In order of strongest to weakest, they are as follows:

1. Royal Flush – Straight flush consisting of A-10.
2. Straight Flush – Five running cards all of the same suit
3. Four of a Kind – Four of the same value card
4. Full House – Three of a one value card along with a pair of another value
5. Flush – Five cards of the same suit
6. Straight – Five consecutive cards not of the same suit
7. Three of a Kind – Three cards of the same value
8. Two Pair – Two lots of paired cards
9. One Pair – Two cards of the same value
10. High Card – No pair or better is made

The numerical/face value of cards counts, too. For example, an ace-high flush is stronger than a king high flush, which is stronger than a queen high flush, and so on. Likewise, a pair of aces beats smaller pairs.

These hand rankings are used in all variations of poker. If you’re playing Omaha at your local casino, or Texas Hold-em poker at Bovada, a royal flush is always the best hand you can make and the order of the hand rankings remains the same. Texas Hold-em poker is one of the most popular variations, but far from the only option!

The higher up the rankings you go, the less likely it is that you’ll actually hit the hand. For example, in Texas Hold’em, you’ll only make a royal flush an astonishing once every 649,740 hands on average, giving you a 0.000154 percent chance.

Meanwhile, you’ll hit a flush around once every 500 hands and, if you make it to the river, you’ll hit a pair around 40 percent of the time. That’s why many poker hands are won or lost on pairs or similar hands in Texas Hold-em, not on royal flushes.

The cards that you choose to play with in poker are based on making the strongest ranked five-card hand possible.

Starting hand selection preflop

In Texas Hold-em poker, you’ll be dealt two cards, known as hole cards, that only you can see. Your first decision in any hand is to choose whether or not to play. Folding is a legitimate option, and one that new players tend to overlook.

Part of the skill of poker is knowing which hands to go with. Some starting hands are much stronger than others. Let’s break them down into categories to see which ones are worth playing:

Premium hands – Strong pocket pairs like aces, kings, queens, and jacks, along with strong broadway hands like ace-king, ace-queen, king-queen suited and so on are known as premium hands.

Medium pairs – Other pocket pair hands that are not as strong as premiums but still have playability, such as pocket sevens, eights, nines and tens.

Broadways – Face cards that don’t quite qualify as premium, yet are still valuable depending on the situation, such as king-queen, king-jack, queen-king and so on.

Suited connectors – Running hands of the same suit that are not particularly strong, but have the opportunity to hit flushes or straights on the board. These include hands like jack-ten suited, ten-nine suited, eight-nine suited and so on.

One-gap suited connectors – One-gap suited connectors are similar to the above. The difference is that they have a gap in between the running cards. Examples include nine-seven suited, eight-ten suited, etc.

Small suited aces – Suited aces aren’t particularly strong if the other card, known as the kicker, is a low card, such as ace-three suited. They can, however, still be played in some situations and can hit the nut flush or straights.

Other suited hands – Suited kings, queens, and some other suited hands can be introduced to your starting hand selection in position, a concept we’ll cover in more detail below.

Trash hands – Around 50 percent or so of possible poker hands are complete trash, such as ten-four offsuit, seven-deuce, and so on. You’ll rarely play these hands. They are too weak and shouldn’t be part of your preflop hand selection. Instead, you should nearly always fold.

Deciding when to raise

Experienced poker players very rarely enter the pot by just calling the bet. When they are the first to enter, they will make a raise. If they don’t want to raise, they will fold.

There are good reasons for this. By raising with all of your hands, you can win the pot in one of two ways. You can steal the blinds when opponents fold, either to the raise or to subsequent bluffs, and you can win the pot when you actually hit your cards.

With premium hands, you can raise from any position at the table, as they are always strong enough to play. When it comes to the other starting hands, they are more situational. If you are in late position, you can play a lot more hands.

The power of position

There are many factors that go into making good decisions in poker. One of the main considerations when it comes to starting hand selection is your position at the table.

In early position, you have lots of players still to act behind you – up to eight opponents in a full ring game. When you’re in late position, such as on the dealer button, you only have two players left to act. That’s only two players who could have a better hand than you.

Being in position is also helpful once the board cards are dealt, as it allows you to act last and control the action based on the information you gain.

Position is so powerful that it completely changes your starting hand selection. You can raise a lot more hands from late position than you can in early position.

To illustrate, if you are on the button, you can typically open-raise with around 40-50 percent of hands. This includes premiums, broadways, most suited aces, kings and queens, suited connectors, and one-gap suited connectors.

From the earliest position, known as under the gun, you can only raise around 5-10 percent of poker hands. This basically only includes your strongest hands, along with a few suited aces to balance your range with bluffs.

Fine-tuning your starting hand selection takes time. You’ll need to study hand ranges from each position, factoring in other elements like stack sizes and opponents’ tendencies.

For now, just be aware that you should stick to premium hands from early position, while raising much wider from late position.