STAKMORE Straight Edge 32" Square Folding Card Table, Cherry Finish

 STAKMORE Straight Edge 32" Square Folding Card Table, Cherry Finish

•  Perfect for hosting card games or serving refreshments at small parties
• Premium solid wood construction
• No assembly required
• Folds to 3.375“ deep for storage
• Square top with a classic straight edge design

Poker starting hands table

The charts are a kind of table that shows the spectrum of hands you should be playing and what to do in any situation with those cards.

Each of them is made up of ranges.

The starting hands chart provides pre-flop information about which cards to choose to play and how to enter the game.

It's okay to use separate graphics for each discipline, because what's good for cash games isn't always good for tournaments. And if something is good for heads-up play, it might look quite different for tables of 6 or 9 at most...

Let's find all this out in the right order.

Poker Starting Hands
Starting hands are the pocket cards you enter the game with. Selecting the correct starting hands is very important in Hold 'Em, because the outcome usually depends on the cards you play. Roughly speaking, you need to be able to separate good cards from bad, discard bad hands, and play the strongest. This strategy will be positive in the long run.

• Base of Selection for Starting Hands and Basic Graphics
• These are some of the most popular questions: "Which cards should beginners play?" or "What cards should I play to win?" Unfortunately, there is no 100% correct answer to these questions. You can win the hand with 2-7o (unsuited) and lose it with pocket aces. Many other factors influence the outcome of the game than just the quality of the starting hands. However, with the right approach, it will be more effective in the long run to enter the game with stronger cards, such as pocket pairs, suited connectors, high suited cards, and so on.

The best starting hands' charts

There are many different starting hand graphics depending on the type of game, chosen strategy, your position and situation at the table. But there are some basics of starting hand selection on which you can build the basic graphics.

Premium starting hands:

Top level (2% are the best starting hands): aces, kings, queens and AKs (suited).
Second level: AKo (unsuited), AQs (matching suits), AJ and KQ, jacks, and dozens of jacks.
Top 10 starting hands:

• Aces, kings, queens, jacks, tens, AKs, AQs, KQs, AJs and AKo.
• The 20 best starting hands:
• Top ten starting hands + A10s, KJs, QJs, K10s, Q10s, A9s, AQo, AJo, nines and eighths.
• The visually basic graphics are as follows:
• Premium starting hands chart
• Premium starting hands
• Top 10 starting hands chart
• Top-10 starting hands
• Top 20 starting hands table
• Top-20 starting hands

How to read the graphics?
You don't need to be an expert to read poker tables. There are all possible pairs of cards on the table that can be dealt in Texas Holdem (the total value is 196 possible combinations). Card suits are not taken into account here. The only factor taken into consideration here is whether they are suited or not.

Typically, several colors are used in the chart and there are explanations from the author about these colors. For example, if you have blue cards in the chart and the author writes that the cards identified with blue are worth raising, therefore, according to your belief, raising will be the most effective solution in this case.

Note: To understand our preflop charts and charts below, remember that "s" in the text means "suited", "o" - unsuited. Remember, beginners can interpret "s" as a sign of spades. ("h" - hearts, "s" - spades, "d" - diamonds, "c" - clubs).

If the letter is not specified, it is likely that it refers to cards of different suits. The suit doesn't matter in some particular cases.

Example: AKs mean A ♥ K ♥; A ♦ K ♦; A ♣ K ♣; A ♠ K ♠ (4 possible combinations).

AKo means A ♥ K ♦; A ♥ K ♣; A ♥ K ♠; A ♦ K ♥; A ♦ K ♣; A ♦ K ♠; A ♣ K ♥; A ♣ K ♦; A ♣ K ♠; A ♠ K ♥; A ♠ K ♦; A ♠ K ♣ (12 possible combinations).

In some tables and texts, “X” is indicated instead of a specific letter. This means that it can be any card (usually it is a card of lesser value than the first indicated). The "Xs" means any card of the same suit.

Which graphic is worth choosing?
Each player selects an individual chart and determines what percentage of hands he will play. The selection of the graph directly depends on the player's strategy. If he follows a tight style, his range will be quite narrow. If he uses a loose style, his range will be greater.

Beginners can use internet graphics, gradually adapting them to their game. It's important to focus not only on your range, but also on your opponents. Even the tightest player can enter the game with any two cards in particular situations. For example, when a player sees that there is a high probability that his opponent will fold his cards in response to his preflop raise.

How and where to get the necessary graphics
You will find many poker charts and starting hand charts on the internet. There are plenty of them in poker books, forums and professional player articles. Many poker schools give away graphics free to play with minimum limits or provide students with specially designed tables for an extra fee.

The main thing is to find out which ones are best suited for you. You can create the chart yourself, but it's a pretty painstaking job.

In this article, we've put together for you the most popular and most wanted graphics for real money players and tournament players.

9-max bss starting hands chart:


For ease of use, we use various colors in the table. You can print it out (download the BSS 9 max table in good quality + color version) and use it as a crib note.

Starting hands graphics for small tables (6 bss max), depending on table position:
Download chart for 6 months

• Red banknotes mean strong hands. It's worth playing with them if you're the first to enter the game or if your opponent limped in. If the player in front of you entered the game with a raise, you should re-raise with those hands about 3.5 times his bet. If there was a raise after you, you should either raise three times or bet all-in.

Yellow ballots (BB only) signify hands that are good for robbing players with 50 stacks of BB and above. You should play them from the big blind if the raise is no more than 4BB from CO, BU or SB. If there was a raise of MP2, MP3 or more than one opponent, you better fold.

Blue-colored banknotes signify medium-strength hands. You should play with them if no one enters the game before you or if there is a limping entry. If there was a raise before or after your action, you'd better fold your cards. The exception will only be in the big blind.

Green ballots mean weak hands. With their help, you can steal the blinds and play just in case no one enters the game before you.

High stakes and low stakes games are different in many ways, but the graphics are defined through the range of hands and more dependent on the selected strategy. That's why they are not divided into micro-limit graphics or graphics for high risk players.

Graphics for Tournament Players
The blinds grow in tournaments over time and the ratios between players' stacks and blinds steadily decrease. Also, the game is designed to fend off opponents, so it is necessary to apply different tactics in the early, middle and late stages of the tournament and therefore use different starting hand graphics.



More simplified graph for MTT at an early stage:

• Simplified chart for MTT at an early stage
• MTT chart for the intermediate stage of the tournament:

In the final stage of the tournament (final table), stack size plays a much more significant role than hole cards. It is best to avoid playing against opponents with big stacks if you are not confident in the strength of your hand. You must choose the chart in the final stage of the MTT according to the amount of chips.

The aforementioned graphics can be suitable for both expensive tournaments and freerolls. However, they can only be used as a guide in situations where it is difficult to adjust to a specific opponent. In real life, it's difficult to play exclusively table-based in multi-table tournaments.

For a start you can check the tables in the freerolls, because their field differs from the usual MTT for real money and at the same time you determine the convenience of the ranges for free.

Spin & Go charts
Spin & Go starting hands chart will be very useful for beginners. It helps players understand which hands to use to call, raise, push or fold and in what position to do so. The suggested charts below are best suited for a Spin & Go max of 3 max with a starting stack of 25BB.

Starting Hand Graphics for Spin & Go on the Button



With a stack of 10-25BB on the button, it is recommended to enter the game with a minimum raise of 2BB, as this position is the most profitable at the table and has its advantages. In the first table, the ballots highlighted with colors signify the hands you can raise from the button with.

With stacks of 10BB or less, the "push-fold" stage starts with Spin-and-go and the less chips you have, the lower your range (purple cells - 10-8 BB, red cells - 7 -6 BB and yellow cells - less than 5 BB).

You should not call opponent bets greater than 10% of your stack with speculative hands.

Starting Hand Graphics for Spin & Go in the Small Blind

Charts for Spin&Go in SB

You should decrease the number of calls from the small blind. Like the button, in the tables for MB hands that are worth entering the game with minimum raises (2.5BB) with a stack above 10BB, colors are highlighted, as well as push hands with a stack smaller than 10BB (ballots purple - 10-8 BB, red bills - 7-6 BB, yellow bills - less than 5 BB).

SNG Graphic (push-fold according to Nash)
Many factors influence decision making in SNG games: starting hand, position, number of players in the pot, etc. If no one entered the game before you or did so with a limp, then generally the decision is made according to your table position and pocket cards. In this case, the most comfortable and simplest graph for low limit SNG tournaments can be indicated in this table:



It is indicated in the table which the maximum amount of BB in stack is adequate to enter the game (shoving) with one or another card. Hands that are absent from the table are not suitable for a push.

Heads-Up Table according to Nash
With the help of Nash's equilibrium graphics, you can modify your game so that you always make the right math decision. It is indicated in the diagrams whether it is worth shoving or folding a hand, depending on the size of the current stack:





How to Use Nash Balance Charts

Find your hand on the above table (blue center diagonal - pairs, pink bills under diagonals - off-suit, purple bills over diagonals - suited cards).

If the player pushes all-in against you, use the second diagram. Otherwise - use the first one. If the amount of your blinds is equal to or less than the stakes indicated, you must put all your chips into the pot. If your number of blinds is higher than indicated in the diagram, you must fold.

Your winning edge may not be that big, but you make a profit after playing hundreds or even thousands of heads-up matches using Nash's balance graphics (push-fold graphics).

Chart according to Sklansky
Each player has their own unique approach to playing, but most follow similar ideas about the starting hand range.

For the first time, its ranking was created by David Sklansky, the famous poker player and author of poker books. He determined 8 groups of starting hands and explained which hands to choose and when to enter the game preflop.

Poker starting hands (David Sklansky table):

Sklansky writes that:

• Group 1-3 hands are played from early position
• Middle position - group 1-5
• Final position - group 1-7
• Be in blinds - 1-8 (all groups)
• For your convenience, we have graphed the Sklansky table.

David Sklansky's starting hands chart:

Sklansky's chart

In this chart, the hands of group 1 are colored blue, light blue - group 2, green - group 3, light green - group 4, yellow - group 5, orange - group 6, pink - group 7 and purple - group 8.

The gray ballots show bad hands that you need to fold in most cases.

special soft
There is special soft that automatically calculates the reach of the hands according to the defined parameters. Most programs suggest free trial versions in which you can graph your starting hands (most often the preflop graph).

The most popular graphics training programs: Equilab and Poker. You can use other poker calculators with graphics.

With the help of special programs, you can also determine specific opponents' ranges and adjust your graph for them.

Please note: in some poker rooms, it is prohibited to use these programs while the game program is open. Furthermore, some poker rooms may even suspend an account to an open Excel program, where multicolored ballots are used. For example, if PokerStars sees an open program for charts or Excel document, they will send a warning to the email and may suspend the account.

As it is desirable to have the chart at hand, there is an easy way out of this situation: open it on the other device (laptop, phone) or print it if possible.

Advice on applying graphics for beginners
Standard graphics and ranges are good for beginners, but for a more effective game you must learn to adapt to your opponents and optimize your game depending on their indicators. For example, if opponents tend to fold to raises, you should widen the range of hands and if there are more loose players against you, it might be worth playing with only the strongest cards.

To optimize your starting hands graph, you should pay close attention to your opponents' play, record your notes, examine the VODs in your discipline, and read modern literature.

Ideally, your graphics should be as flexible as possible to adjust to your opponents.

Please keep in mind that all charts are of a recommending nature and even if you follow them violently, you cannot guarantee 100% profit.

To adjust the graph yourself, you need to check your current limits, but first you can test the graph in freerolls or cash games for play money.

If you're just getting started on your way to playing poker, you can also add the charts and tables mentioned in this article to your arsenal. They are suitable not just for expensive games. You can use it as graphics for micro limits and graphics for freerolls.