Texas Holdem guide to Max Starting Positions

In a game of Texas Holdem how best to start playing a hand is a common problem for beginners to grapple with, as each situation is different and may call for a different approach.

How to best play a starting hand can depend on many factors; including your position and ability of the other players at the table. Are they adopting a tight game? Or are they loose players?

I will try to give a guideline as to which hands have the best probability of winning assuming we are playing cash game with 6 players. It will be a tight aggressive (TAG) starting hand chart. For the purpose of this example I will not include playing from the blinds as they will be covered in another article.

Under The Gun (UTG)

When you are under the gun, you are the first player to act, meaning you will be out of position post flop. Playing out of position should be avoided as much possible, as it produces very tricky situations to be in. Due to being first to act you do not have any information on your opponents hands strength and therefore should stick to premium hands only. Above I have shown the hands I will open raise.

However if faced with a re-raise I will fold AQ, AJ, KQ and pairs from 22-TT in most instances. The reason for folding these particular hands to a re-raise is because when a player re-raises under the gun they normally will be holding an extremely strong hand. I said earlier I will fold the stated cards to a re-raise, however it does depend on the player in question. The above information is of course only a guide and I have found it has worked for me, however I am sure some people will play a little tighter and some looser.

Under The Gun + 1 (UTG+1)

UTG + 1 is the next position along from under the gun. It’s not to different from UTG due to there still being four people left to act behind you and again you will be acting out of position post flop. For these reasons I will only open up slightly looser. I will add AJ, ATs QJs and TJs to my open raising range. Again if faced with a re-raise I will fold these hands as well as the hands stated in the UTG starting hand paragraph.

CUT OFF (CO)

The cut off (CO) is the second best starting position. Its one before the dealer button and therefore if you can make the dealer fold you have bought yourself the dealer button, leading to you then having position on the rest of the field post flop. Due to you already having seen two people act you can open a lot wider range of hands in the cut off as shown above. By raising if folded to you and the dealer folding post flop you will have position on the rest of the field allowing you to make easier and better decisions post flop.

The dealer button

The dealer button, (button) is the position where you should be playing the vast majority of your hands and therefore making the most money. It’s the best position in poker!! I will open raise a large amount of hands as shown above and if called I know I will have position on my other opponents post flop. This again is just a guideline and obviously will depend what sort of players are in the blinds. If they are tight, as you would ideally want to your left then I might be even looser on the button. In contrast if they were loose themselves (which is not ideal), then I would tighten up my opening range.

Now you have an idea of starting ranges why not test this out at one of our poker rooms or return to our strategy page for another Holdem Guide.

Thank you for reading our holdem guide to Max Starting Hand Positions.