MY POKER FACE

Inside the Table · June 9, 2026

Which Hands to Play: a Preflop Starting-Hand Guide

Most losing players play too many hands. Here's a simple starting-hand framework: the premiums, the playable hands, the trash, and how position changes all of it.

Which Hands to Play: a Preflop Starting-Hand Guide

If you fixed only one thing about your game, it should be this: play fewer hands. The most common and most expensive leak in poker is calling along with too many weak holdings before the flop and hoping it works out. Good preflop discipline is boring and it is most of the difference between a winning player and a losing one.

Here is a framework simple enough to actually use. (If the shorthand like AKs or 72o is unfamiliar, the glossary has the notation.)

The tiers

  • Premiums (always raise). AA, KK, QQ, JJ, and AK. These play well from anywhere, and you are happy to put in a lot of chips with them.
  • Strong (raise from most seats). TT down to 99, AQ, AJs, KQs, and the suited broadway cards (two high cards of the same suit). Good hands that make good top pairs and strong draws.
  • Speculative (play cheaply, mostly in position). Small pairs hoping to flop a set, suited connectors like 87s, and suited aces. These need a good price or position, because they miss the flop more often than they hit.
  • Trash (fold). Offsuit junk, weak offsuit aces like A4o from early position, most unconnected low cards, and the famous 72o. Folding these is the discipline that makes the rest of your game work.

Position changes everything

The same hand is a raise from one seat and a fold from another. KTo is an easy fold from early position and a fine raise on the button, because position lets you play more hands profitably. So tighten up early, when many players still have to act behind you, and open up late, when most of them have already folded. A starting-hand range is not one list, it is a list per seat.

Raise, do not limp

When you are first into an unopened pot, come in raising rather than just calling the big blind. Open-limping announces a weak hand, lets everyone in cheaply, and surrenders the chance to win it right there. Calling does have its place, mostly defending your big blind at a good price or set-mining a small pair in position, but as a default, raise or fold.

How this shows up in My Poker Face

The game makes preflop discipline visible. Every opponent has a looseness rating you can read on their profile, which is just how many hands they play. A calling station sits near the top of the scale, playing far too many hands, while a nit sits at the bottom, playing almost none. You can watch both lose money in opposite directions. In practice mode, the Range Explorer shows the full grid of starting hands and how often you actually play each one, and the coach turns your preflop leaks into drills, so you can see whether you are quietly playing like the station you are trying to beat.

The one mistake everyone makes

Playing too many hands, especially weak offsuit hands and especially out of position. Every one of those is a small leak, and they add up to the difference between winning and losing. When you are bored and card-dead, the urge to “see a flop” with junk is strongest, and that is exactly when folding is worth the most. Playing too loose is the surest sign you are the fish.

Tighten up before the flop and the rest of the game gets easier. Open practice mode and let the Range Explorer show you your real ranges, or read the full series.