Starting Hands For 6 Max No Limit Holdem

This article will look at good starting hands for 6-max no-limit hold’em. You can deviate from this strategy a bit to play deceptively, but its a good foundation to work from.

Premium Hands

When ever you are dealt premium starting hands you have a very good chance of winning the hand especially in 6-max games where there are fewer players who can potentially have a better hand, which is unlikely even in full ring tables. Premium starting hands are considered to be QQ, KK, AA, AK, and when you look down at your cards and your eyes light up, you have to play the hand like you have the best hand pre-flop and bet them aggressively by raising or re-raising pre-flop to narrow down the field to 1 or 2 callers.

In 6-max games you will typically not get more then 2 callers so your premium hands will hold up more often then in full ring tables where more players are gambling and seeing a flop. The ideal situation with big pocket pairs is to be heads up with someone. If your opponent has a lower pocket pair, then you are about a 80% favorite to win the hand, but with additional callers the value of big pairs will go down. You may be asking why AK is in the same category as QQ+. The reason is that AK is the best drawing hand, so when you hit top pair you likely have the best hand, so you have to play it the same way as big pocket pairs.

Good Top Pair Hands

Top pair hands are not made hands which need to hit the flop to make a hand. With these hands you are looking to hit the flop hard and at least make top pair. In 6-max good top pair hands are considered to be AK, AQ, AJ, AT, KQ. With AJ+ it doesn’t matter if they are suited cards, but with AT it’s better to play when suited, especially in early position. If you happen to connect with the flop, you will have a good kicker and potentially other draws to further improve your hand.

Small And Middle Pocket Pairs

Pairs win big pots when flopping sets, so you want to play pocket pairs for “set value” because you will usually when someone elses stack when they have over pairs or a top pair hand which they can’t get away from. In early position you should raise most pocket pairs, except maybe 22-44 at aggressive tables where you can expect to be three bet or unlikely to get paid off when you flop a set.

Suited Connectors And One Gap Connectors

Suited connectors like 67s, 9Ts, KJs, etc are great hands to play when you have position. Depending on the table conditions it may even be possible to raise with them in early position in 6-max games to change up your play. If you replace very low pocket pairs for some suited connectors, well then you will have the same pre-flop raise percentage range, and you still have the potential to hit the flop hard and win someones stack.

Speculative Hands

Suited aces like A3s and suited kings like K6s are considered to be speculative hands. When ever you are dealt these hands you need to have the discipline to get away from the hand if you don’t hit the flop hard even when you make top pair because you are likely dominated against aggression. These are drawing hands and you will need to hit a flush or make two pair to win the hand. Play them within reason whenever you are getting good odds in big multi-way pots and there is a good chance of stacking someone. You want to see a flop as cheap as possible with speculative hands.

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