Beginner Hand Selection for No Limit Hold Em Tournaments

The longer you play No-Limit hold em poker tournaments the more you'll learn about hand selection and what hands are playable from what positions at the table. This article is meant as a guide for beginners to help learn the different types of hands you should play and how you should play them before the flop in no-limit hold em tournaments.

Premium Hands (Big Pairs, Ace-King)

Big pairs and ace-king are very rarely an underdog to any hand in no-limit pre-flop. When I say big pairs I am primarily referring to aces, kings, and queens. If you pick up one of these premium hands pre-flop then you should always be raising or re-raising. There are times where it's correct to fold queens to multiple raises in front of you but for beginners I would say these times are few and far between and you are more often than not making a mistake by folding these preflop. A big mistake that beginners make in no-limit tournaments is just calling the big blind or raises with these hands trying not to lose a lot of chips. You are more often than not a favorite with these hands and should be getting in as much money as possible preflop in order to maximize your gains when you are ahead.

Speculative Hands (Small-Medium Pairs, Suited Connectors)

These are dangerous hands but they can win you a lot of money if they flop correctly. You should only be calling bets preflop with these hands when it does not cost you a significant portion of your chip stack and when there are plenty of chips for you to win. A good rule of thumb is that you and your opponent should have at least 20 times the amount that you are calling in order for the hand to be profitable in the long run with small and medium pairs. For suited connectors (67 of spades for example) you should have even more than this. As with all "rules" in poker these rules can be broken by more experienced players but for most beginners this is a good rule of thumb.

Another problem that most beginners run into with these hands is that they go to far with them when they don't flop well. With small-medium pairs you are primarily looking to flop a set (three of a kind). If this doesn't happen, especially with the smallest pairs, you should almost always release the hand in the face of any sort of aggression. The value in these hands comes when you flop three of a kind and get someones entire stack when they go broke with their big pair.

The same rule applies to your suited connector type hands. Rarely are you looking to flop a single pair with these hands in a no-limit tournament. The value comes when you flop a well concealed two pair or straight or even sometimes a small flush. Just because your 67 flopped top pair on a 247 board does not mean that you necessarily have the best hand when someone who raised preflop raises you again here. You are primarily trying to flop any sort of hand that is better than a single pair.

Other Suited Hands

These troublesome hands I see beginners lose a lot of money with often. Yes occasionally you may flop a flush or two pair with your jack-four suited but more often than not you are either losing money unnecessarily preflop by playing these hands or losing more than that going broke with a bad one pair hand when you flop a jack. In almost all instances a beginning player should be throwing these hands away preflop.

Other "Pretty" Hands

The pretty hands that I'm referring to are hands that beginners think look good but in reality they don't play very well. Hands like jack-eight or ace-four have some value but in general a beginner is going to lose a lot more money than they win when they get into a betting war on the flop with a single pair. Most beginners should be sticking to their solid speculative hands and the premium hands.

Trap Hands

Trap hands are hands with one broadway card with a decent kicker or even two medium strength broadway cards. These include hands like king-jack, king-ten, queen-jack, queen-ten, jack-ten, or other similar hands. They seem extremely strong because they include two big cards but often if you don't flop extremely well you are going to end up losing a lot of chips against a superior player. These hands are called trap hands because they will often cost you a lot of chips when you flop what seems to be a strong hand, but because of the types of flops you need to flop well with they often make a very good second-best hand. You can play these hands when they don't cost a significant portion of your chips but be weary of the texture of the flops you are playing them on. They have more value in late position when you can raise with them after everyone else has folded in order to play a heads up pot against a single opponent or to steal the blinds.

While there are no hard and fast rules for how to play no-limit texas hold em tournaments these guidelines should assist beginning players in keeping their losses to a minimum and ensure that when they play a pot they very often have the best hand. Playing with this tight strategy requires a good amount of patience as you will find yourself folding a lot of hands but in no-limit hold em tournaments patience is truly a virtue. For more advice and guidance for beginning and intermediate players in no-limit tournaments please check out my other articles.