Poker starting hands chart: best Texas Hold’em hands by position
All 169 Texas Hold’em starting hands, colour-coded by strength. Pick your seat to see a sensible opening range from that position, a solid guide for new and improving players.
How to read this starting hands chart
Every two-card starting hand sits in this 13×13 grid. The diagonal is pocket pairs (AA, KK…). Cells above the diagonal are suited (marked s); cells below are offsuit (marked o). Brighter means stronger.
Strength is scored with the Chen formula. Choosing a position highlights a sensible opening range: play tight early and wider late. Treat it as a guideline, not a rule.
Using the starting hands chart by position
The single biggest leap most new players make is folding weak hands out of position. This poker starting hands chart makes that concrete: from under the gun only the top of the grid is worth opening, while from the button you can play a far wider range profitably. Click through the positions and watch how many of the 169 Texas Hold’em starting hands stay in the opening range: early seats stay tight, late seats widen.
Why suited and connected hands rate higher
Two cards of the same suit can make a flush, and cards close in rank can make a straight, so the Chen formula behind this starting hands chart rewards both. That is why a hand like KQ suited outranks KQ offsuit, and why small suited connectors are playable speculative hands from late position even though their high-card value is low.
From chart to real decisions
Once a hand is in your opening range, the next question is how it fares against what your opponent holds. Pair this starting hands chart with our poker odds calculator to see exact equities, and the pot odds calculator to decide whether a call is profitable once money goes in.
One last tip: a chart tells you which hands to open, not how to play them afterwards. Position, stack sizes and how your opponents play all shift the right decision once the flop comes. Treat this starting hands chart as your pre-flop baseline, lean on it while you're learning, and start trusting your read of the table as you gain experience.