Table of Contents
The strength of the hole cards is divided into 3 categories
Super Value
Cards that go for a raise for value and are willing to go all-in preflop. Examples include AA, KK, and AK and QQ in aggressive play.
Medium value
A hand that is strong, but not strong enough to go all-in pre-flop. For example, AQ is a good pre-flop hand, but in many cases you have to fold against a 4bet.
Weak value
A hand that you would play for balance, but most of the time we would fold against stiff resistance.
The classification of value is influenced by the range of the opponent and the amount of chips. When the chip volume is shallow (at 10bb), A7o is better than 56s, but when the chips are deep (100bb+), A7o drops in value because of the reverse success/loss ratio and starts to be inferior to 56s.
Also, against a player who raised preflop with 100%, AJ is a very good hand; however, against a player who only raised with AA, KK can’t even be considered a good hand.
So what specifically affects the value of our hole cards?
Card advantage
The hole cards is not inherently the same in terms of showdown win rate, and therefore we will almost always play AA pre-flop while most of the time we will give up 72o.
Technical advantage
against an opponent who is worse than us, we can play more cards against them and take advantage of their vulnerability to profit; however, against a good opponent, we can’t take advantage of their vulnerability and have to tighten our starting range to play.
Table dynamics
AA is a good hand to go 3bet, but if the blinds are an aggressive mid-chip player, we can lure the blinds into a squeeze by flat calling a raise from the player in front of us, so we can 4bet all-in to force him to make a difficult decision. On the flip side, a hand like 96s with position to call at 100bb or more is not a bad decision, but if the mid-chip player behind you likes to squeeze, then the hand is better suited for a 3bet or a straight fold.
Position
We may be more likely to give up KTo when there is no position, and more likely to call when there is position. Generally speaking, the better the position, the stronger the hand.
Table image
If we have played many hands before and raised bluffs to get caught by others. Then going to the game flop with 85s again is prone to counterattacks. On the flip side, if we have folded many times before the flop, then using a hand like 85s to 3bet or call and make a move bluff after the flop is a viable strategy.
Final Thoughts
Card strength is also specific after the flop, we know that normally calling texas holdem poker tips, top pair top kicker or higher is defined as a good hand, top pair seed kicker and a relatively large middle pair are medium strength hands, with a 100bb chip depth a good regular player raises in MP position and you call in BTN position with T9s.
The flop is Th 9h 5s and your opponent continually bets you raise because T9s is a high value hand here; the flop is Jh Tc 5s and your opponent bets you simply call because T9s is a medium value hand here; if the flop is 6h 5h 3s and your opponent bets, you simply raise or fold because T9s is a low value hand here.
