Starting Hand Plays and Odds Calculators

We cannot overemphasize the importance of starting hand plays in Texas Holdem. We have to see right away how strong our starting hand is—whether to play or fold them. This is where hand play and calculators can partner together.

Amid a stressful game when all players at the online table badly need to win, even pros sometimes do a messy hand play by pursuing too many hands. When we're faced with a flop worth calling though we have bad cards, we may be tempted to proceed calling in hopes that later we may end up with two pairs or three of a kind. Or even something stronger.

We may hit the card we need at times and win, but the odds of losing is often greater with this scenario. Okay, we may draw the card we need once in 10 or 20 times. No matter how big that one time win is it will always be made void by the 9 or 19 losses. Playing too many hands is a bad idea of taking risks in Holdem.

But we need not take such risks online. A powerful odds calculator will help us see the strength or weakness of a starting hand based on the Sklansky starting hand ranking system. This is an excellent combination of starting hand play and calculators to see early on in the game whether to play or fold our starting hand. This is wise poker economics.

With a Sklansky hand grouping system we are quickly informed about our starting hand strength as soon as they're dealt us. For instance, we're playing at a table where there are 10 players. The system, at river phase, will automatically and immediately rank pocket aces 100 percent belonging to GROUP 1. Pocket two's is ranked 63.3 percent belonging to GROUP 7.

Of course, good poker players can also do this hand ranking mentally even without calculators. But more specifically, hand play and calculators can be more useful together when comparing hand strengths. For instance, we compare 4 starting hands: which is stronger, A-Q unsuited, J-10 suited, A-5 suited, or Q-9 suited?

No, it's not A-5 suited. Neither is it A-Q unsuited. Those may be our choices without the aid of an odds calculator that measures the strength of starting hands. With the right powerful calculator we get fast and accurate hand ranking based on a proven poker ranking system.

Hand play and calculators should serve a complementary purpose. Thus, right at the start we can strategize for a win.