On Preflop Play in Limit Hold 'em - Part II

By B. A. Winterhalter
8-15-06

High-card Strength

The first, and most important thing that you should consider when attempting to evaluate the strength of a hand is how high its cards are. It is my opinion that the faces on certain cards in hold 'em create a distraction from seeing the true value of hand. In the earlier days of card printing, when cards as low as today's 8 had faces, this might have been less of a concern. But as we all know, today's cards have the unique virtue, or perhaps vice, that only the best of them are painted. Many players will look down to see a hand like K7o and, seeing the baffling face of a king stabbing himself in the head, feel that there is genuine potential in these cards. It is, however, the case that a hand like K7o should mostly be discarded. In order to prevent this confusion, I'm going to suggest a purely numerical system of assessment for high-card value. If you find this initially confusing, I recommend that you attempt to understand what it is I am getting at by using these numbers--namely, I'm trying to provide a means for assessing hand value that eliminates the confusion brought into prominence by the paint on cards; I want to look at high-card strength systematically.

So, here's a table outlining my meanings:

In general, your hand should have a combined high-card strength of at least 20 according to this table before you should even consider playing it. And if your hand's combined high-card strength is greater than or equal to 23, you should seriously consider raising with it. There are a number of exceptions to the above rules, some of which can be made systematic, others can only be explained in relation the the specific conditions of the game in which you are playing. These latter ideas will be discussed later on.

I mentioned earlier that you should fold K7o in most circumstances. Looking to the table, we find, however that a hand only slightly better than it, K9o, is a hand that we should sometimes consider playing. It may initially seem baffling that a hand whose total strength is 18 is that much worse than one whose strength is 20. But you should think of these combined high-card strengths rather as more like orders of magnitude than single digit increments. Although that conceptualization will exaggerate the difference, this is not so bad a mistake as supposing that K7o might merit a call occasionally.

In order to explain this table, let's look at some facts. The FullTiltPoker deck contains 52 cards, and the rules stipulate that certain hands beat certain others, and that if two people have the same variety of hand--like a pair--the player who has a higher ranked hand wins. In most hands of hold 'em, this latter rule is the one that is decisive. As such, having better ranked cards is of the utmost importance. Since you and your opponents are equally likely to make a pair or two pair or three of a kind, the only (or one of the only) wedge on which the hand can break is whose cards are higher. Thus, it is extremely important that you play only those cards that are highest, and eschew lower ranked hands (though there are some exceptions to this notion to be discussed).

I said that if a hand is to be considered for playing, its high-card value must total at least 20. This number is, admittedly, somewhat arbitrary. But the arbitrariness does not prevent it from reflecting the notion that you simply must play only high ranked cards in order to expect to prevail in the long term. It is merely a convenient schema for assessing this part of hand value. There are a few, thorny exceptions to this number that deserve independent explanation. The first, and most notable, two are A8o and A9o. Although these hands can occasionally be played, for the most part it is advisable to throw them out. The reason for this goes a long way towards illustrating a broader point: you often will want to toss A8o and A9o because when these two hands do make a pair, it will either be top pair with a not-so-great kicker or a lower pair. The latter happening might actually be the more felicitous for this sort of hand, especially if the 8 or 9 is the highest card on the board. The possibility of playing all the way to the river with top pair and then losing due to an inferior kicker is not a pleasant one at all. And while 8 and 9 do manage to cut above the middle of the deck, this often won't be enough to win a kicker war (unless your opponents happen to enjoy playing weak aces, which is precisely the kind of circumstance in which you would think about playing these hands).

On the other side of this idea about the importance of making a decent pair with a decent kicker, however, comes the other exception to the 20-value rule: JTo. This hand, even though its value is lower than 20, is sometimes playable. When it does make a pair, it will sometimes make top pair, and when it does so, it will often have a good enough kicker to be worth continuing with.