Starting Hand Winning Odds.

[Archie Dos Santos]

Hi,
Just returning to learning poker. Been busy with work and haven't had time to studying it. Just a question about odds. Say for instance I get an A2(suited) or A2 (unsuited) that means I have a 57 percent chance of winning? Cheers for any replies! Archie
https://www.cardschat.com/poker-starting-hands-percentage.php

 

[5pAce_C0wb0y]

59% suited and 57% offsuite but these odds are preflop only. Once that flop hits texture dependant your odds of winning the hand can drop dramatically. Should be played from late position only with caution remember if you hit the ace you maybe out kickered.

 

[teutonic1]

Hi,
Just returning to learning poker. Been busy with work and haven't had time to studying it. Just a question about odds. Say for instance I get an A2(suited) or A2 (unsuited) that means I have a 57 percent chance of winning? Cheers for any replies! Archie
https://www.cardschat.com/poker-starting-hands-percentage.php

This way leads to unhappiness unless you're a recreational player who is going to reload €10-20 every week into a site. Following a "win rate" simple graph might prolong your weekly bankroll somewhat and allow you to enjoy playing cards. And sometimes you might win. Nothing wrong with that.

The 57/59 "win" percentages are simply the A2x against all random starting hole cards in NLHE. If everyone called with their random hole cards and stayed with them to the river, A2x would win 58% and lose 42% over millions of hands. (You can find this out by downloading Poker Stove software for free off the net.) In reality, most players simply learn that playing 72o UTG isn't wise.

However, this is not the way many other poker players play. They play position, card ranges and deploy betting strategies that try and ensure a positive expected value (EV+). Rarely are you going to face a situation where all opponents are playing really poor EV pots or with poor starting ranges. For example, JTs is only 46% dog against your A2s, while a lowly pocket pair 22 is 62% favourite against the A2s. If you're up against JTs and 22, your A2 is only favoured to win 31% of the time (your equity preflop) and surprisingly the 22s only have 27% equity preflop.

My advice, when starting, one of the most important cheat sheets (assuming you're playing on line) is a starting hand guide by each position - early, mid, late and the blinds (SB + BB). There plenty of starting hand guides one can download from the net based on you position in the betting rotation. Many people don't have too much spare time but learning about the game for 1/2 to an 1 hour a week will greatly improve your enjoyment of the game.

best of luck on the felt, virtual or otherwise

 

[shykarno]

better to play after the flop) the chances before the flop you are told to enter the game or not.

 

[Bozovicdj]

Hi,
Just returning to learning poker. Been busy with work and haven't had time to studying it. Just a question about odds. Say for instance I get an A2(suited) or A2 (unsuited) that means I have a 57 percent chance of winning? Cheers for any replies! Archie
https://www.cardschat.com/poker-starting-hands-percentage.php

First of all, A2s will win 57% of the time if your opponent's range is 100%. That would mean, your opponent can play literally with any two cards in the deck (from 72o to AA).

However, let's say you are on the late position - BU. There is an opponent who is UTG and raised pre-flop. His range should look something like this:

Now, you can very well see that A2s is not going to be a 57% favourite against any of these hands, which means it is a losing hand against this particular range.

From this point of view, if you end up in late position with A2s and facing a raise pre-flop you should probably fold, while, if you are in late position with A2s and everyone folded to you, then you yourself can make a raise pre-flop under the assumption that remaining players can have any hand.

If you want to learn about ranges, especially starting ranges, I suggest finding charts online for opening hands in different positions.
If you don't have a HUD to track your opponents, and are playing longer sessions, then I suggest using:
http://www.pokerhandrange.com/
where you can keep track of someone's oppening hands (when you get to see them ofc) and figure out whether to fold/call/3-bet with your own hand.