What is the strongest starting hand in 6 card PLO? If you know your 6 card PLO strategy, then your immediate response should be, "it depends"Best starting hands: Premium class for allin's preflop: AA23 DS AA24 DS AA2x DS AA34 DS AAxx DS with at least 1 card between A-6. 1 Year of PLO Reflection. Every PLO8 hand looks playable thanks to the split-pot element but don’t get drawn into this trap. Here is the key ‘Wraps Love Gaps ’, that is to say you need gaps in your starting hand in order to flop the best possible wraps. Starting hands in Pot-Limit Omaha are grouped by structure. O. PLO Hi/Lo) is an interesting game that includes four hole cards and the chance to form both low and high hands. Efficiency drives decisions. GGPoker has become the best poker room for playing Omaha due to the following features: Wide range of stakes (from PLO2$ to PLO80K$). PLO Starting Hands Chart. Ten, nine or eight high = 1 point Under the Omaha Hi Lo starting hands point system, finally add all the points so assigned to the Omaha low hand together. The math dictates you would prefer everyone folding instead of getting a call even when opening a premium starting hand. Pocket pairs are extremely strong multiway candidates since they become a set on the flop 11. 2. Big profits are easily made in 6-max PLO games – as long as you make the right. If you want to learn how to play specific starting hands like a pro, read one of the articles below. 5% (compared to 31. Learning to play these five categories of starting hands is just the beginning. What are the best starting hands in Pot Limit Omaha and how do you play them? Use this PLO starting hand chart plus basic strategy tips to win in PLO. . This is a starter to formulating your 5 Card PLO strategy. When your building your Database of hands this will be key to increasing dat bb/100, paying attention is way more important in PLO than in NLH I would say. Maybe the exact GTO ranges are complex but the basics are easy. 2. Here is a basic and conservative pot limit omaha hand chart for being the first to open (everyone folds to you) in various positions. Part of the series: How to Play Omaha Poker. Stealing the blinds is your main objective for raising preflop in an unopened pot. Just like in Hold’em, suited connectors (eg. Almost all the top. This article covers 3 main areas of adjusting to 6-max PLO games from the perspective of a beginner or someone transitioning from Holdem. Learn which starting hands can help you get a. for example,. Once you know the odds and outs of Omaha, you'll be able to make. e. In this article, we’ll briefly explore how PLO Hi-Lo works and which hands are the best for players to receive at the start of a round. patiofurnature •. Mid range 4 card rundown or 1 gappers. PLO has been the 2 nd most popular poker variant for many years now. However, other strong hands include AAQQ double-suited, AAJT double-suited, and. The odds of getting dealt AA, Hold'em's best hand, are 220-1 against. In fact, the best hand in Omaha is a double-suited A-A-K-K with a host of possibilities – nut flushes and straights with the two best pairs possible. This guide will look at the various starting hands for Omaha Hi-Lo poker including PLO8. What is Big O. The best starting hands in PLO aren’t the same as the best-starting hands of PLO Hi-Lo. The rule of thumb for a cash-game bankroll is to never have more than 5% of your entire roll in play at one time. In Hold’em, we have suited connectors. Obviously a 'good' hand in plo is relative, but these hands can fit a lot of flops, and are very deceptive. What is the best starting hand in Pot Limit Omaha? There are a variety of different PLO poker hands that carry strong potential, with the most powerful being an A-A-K-K combination. Firstly position at the table is covered, then starting hand selection and finally the opponent weaknesses mentioned above. TM24601 • 5 mo. May 10, 2015 · To be specific, full ring Omaha hands invaders from planet moolah tend to be won by NUT flushes where second/third best flushes are often left crying. AAJT double-suited, AAQQ double-suited and AAJJ double-suited are some of the strong hands. Any of the hands in the top 30 list are very strong hands even if not double suited. PLO hand strengths are a lot more about post-flop playability, not about how absolute strength. I can’t believe it’s taken four years to finally get round to writing a pot limit Omaha (PLO) guide. All pot-limit Omaha games are the same in terms of rules and format. The royal flush stands as the best hand possible in the rankings, while the high card hand ranks as the weakest. In PLO8, players can win by holding the best five-card poker hand. The best starting hands in PLO aren’t the same as the best-starting hands of PLO Hi-Lo. The best PLO starting hands will include high-ended pairs that are also double-suited with connectors that allows them to improve preflop. See moreWhat Are the Top Starting Hands in PLO? A♠A♦K♠K♦ - This hand is the best possible double-paired starting hand. This means they can make a much wider range of hands and make the nuts—the highest possible hands—more frequently. This PLO course is perfect for beginner players as it teaches the fun. Add to this the fact that seemingly insignificant. If no player qualifies for the low pot, then the whole pot is won by the. Strong rundowns give you that chance. Get tips for the best starting hands in this free online video clip abou. 60-Minute Master: PLO Part 3, Starting Hands. AAKK, AAJ10. Here are my top 3 tips when making the switch, click on one of the links below to jump to your wanted tip: 1. If you want to know the best Omaha poker hands, you’ve come to the right place. You might make the mistake of looking at AAKK as two pair, but what AAKK really represents is the hand that can be. Pot Limit Omaha requires you to have a stronger hand as the game progresses. The best starting hands in Omaha Hi-Lo are A-A-2-3 double-suited followed by A-A-2-4 double-suited. A suited ace-queen, also called Little SLick or Big Chick, is also one of the best starting hands in Texas Hold'em. You wouldn’t believe the amount of people who sit down and don’t understand that you have to use 2 cards from your hand, no more and no less. However, in Omaha hi-lo, one must first count the highest card in your low hand. Betting Gods Professional Sports Tipsters. The best starting hands have a combination of the above. But in Zoom Poker you can be dealt over 250 hands per hour depending on how fast you click! With more hands per hour comes more good hands. This kind of hand is very strong because it can be played for both high and low, which gives it great scoop potential. Pot limit Omaha 8 (a. 5% in full-deck hold’em). The most significant difference to Hold'em is that the best Omaha starting hand - AAKK double suited - has "only" 67% to 33% equity lead vs. g. Play Connected Cards. 3. 5. If you're just learning the game, or you simply want to rebuild your Omaha foundations, you should simply stick to playing only very strong Omaha starting hands. Ideally, the starting hand should be good for both good high and low hands. Load hands into one of the best free add-ons in Leak Buster – APS equity calculator. December 2023 Set For Three Major Poker Series To. , 9 8 7 6 5. European casino players adore pot-limit Omaha. g. In fact, the Ace is the best possible low card, then the Deuce, then the Trey. Regardless of whether you hit top pair on a queen- or ace-high flop, your hand is very strong, and extracting value becomes an immediate priority. a random hand than AAKKQ with the same suits. Pocket pairs are extremely strong multiway candidates since they become a set on the flop 11. Some of the topics we cover include the changes from proper No Limit Hold'em tactics, constructing opening ranges, the best places to find PLO training videos, three-betting, the importance of position, cold-calling preflop, and. 8% of the time. The best possible starting hand is A-A-K-K double-suited (like kings, two different ace-high flushes, a straight, or s ome combination of those. Here are top Texas Holdem poker hands ranked, from the best to the worst. J-J-T-9. Basically you click your two highest cards with suitedness and then clicks into two lower cards. PLO is popular because it provides the player with more opportunity to play given you have more hole-cards leading to more starting hand computations – and this leads to the most common mistake shifting from NLHE to PLO – playing too many hands. Best PLO Omaha Starting Hands. • Some hands which don’t contain aces are playable. We’ve compiled this guide to help newcomers to the world of Pot Limit Omaha get started on the right path. In four card, you’re widely accepted best starting hand is ace, ace-deuce, three double suited on both of the aces. You’re also able to train these strength buckets and play through as many hands as you like to master your postflop skills. You should look to raise and reraise with these hands and go all-in before the flop if possible. Calling Cold-calling frequencies will increase because you have more. Ideally, the starting hand should be good for both good high and low hands. 1. . The rules are as follows: One player is the dealer, with the small and big blind situated to the left of the button. Blinds and Antes : Before the game starts, two players must post blinds to create an initial pot. In fact, the best hand in Omaha is a double-suited A-A-K-K with a host of possibilities – nut flushes and straights with the two best pairs possible. In this article, we’ll briefly explore how PLO Hi-Lo works and which hands are the best for players to receive at the start of a round. The eight comes from the game's full title of Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo Split 8 or Better. , AKs or QJs) are considered one of the best-starting hands in poker. Specifically, I guess we’ll start with the four card and go to the five card. Our selection of starting hands was quite simple and straightforward because it made sense to do it in such a way. Starting Hands Poker Training Posts. The latter offers 169 possible starting hand. They are: Royal Flush: Top five cards of the same suit make a Royal Flush. 1. 10. That means Player 1 has an 8-4-3-2-A while Player 2 has 7-6-4-3-2, thus making Player 2’s hand the winning low hand. Other strong hands include. The best starting hands in PLO aren’t the same as the best-starting hands of PLO Hi-Lo. Relative hand strength is a big deal in PLO and its one of the reasons poker players struggle to transition from other forms. The low hand winner is the player with the best hand featuring five unpaired cards valued 8 or lower. Omaha is a community-card game played with two to ten players on one table. PLO Beginner’s Strategy – Playing After The Flop — Raise, Call or Fold? Post Flop Pot Limit. However, Pot Limit Omaha is anything but a. The best starting hand in PLO 4 that makes you lucky to go are high card pairs and some connectors that have a chance to improve post-flop. Therefore, the best starting hand is A, A, 2, 3, and it should be double-suited. Low Rundowns. 3. With that in mind, let's start with a common preflop PLO mistake. You should be much more careful when choosing your starting hands in Omaha as getting involved with hands prone to making the second-best hand a high percentage of the time can be a costly habit. The best Omaha-8 hands are only around 2-1 against random hands and usually less than 3-2 against other good hands. What follows are eight common mistakes I see beginning PLO players make. Some argue this is A-A-K-K double suited, while others prefer A-A-J-10 double suited (the double suited refers to having only 2 suits, with these hands these would necessarily be to the ace – giving the hands ‘nut flush’ potential). You're 227 times more likely to be dealt AA than AA-KK double suited and your AA is a larger favorite to win against the most comparable hand. Enter your details below to get updates when new Big O Strategies are. Rule 1: Play more hands against weak opponents and players who fold their blinds too often. There are four kinds of starting hands in PLO, drawing hands, pairs and mixed hands. 1. Add to this the fact that seemingly insignificant. Once you get used to the new ranking system, and understand why it has changed, the game of 6 Plus Hold’em becomes an action-packed and fun-filled version of the game. Casual players from Asia. We’ve compiled this guide to help newcomers to the world of Pot Limit Omaha get started on the right path. Efficiency in PLO refers to using all relevant components in your starting hand or range and force your opponent into the most optimal part of the game tree, for you. The latter is often called O8 in limit games and PLO8 when using a pot-limit betting structure. Player 3 wins the low, using the 3-5 in their hand along with the A-2-4 on. These are the things to look for in a good starting hand in 6 card plo in no particular order. Pot-limit Omaha is the most popular poker variation after Texas Hold’em and is also a community poker game. How do you get better at PLO poker? Omaha PLO Poker Strategy: Tips to Play By #1 Make Sure to Pick Your Starting Hand Carefully. A player holds A ♥ K ♣ Q ♠ J ♣ — a strong starting hand in pot-limit Omaha. Probably the biggest one is the importance. have the potential to make two flushes. Everybody here knows poker and the importance of playing well preflop so I don't need to reiterate. We are going to break down the top 20 Texas Hold’em starting hands so that you can start playing preflop with confidence: 1. This ebook is full of tips on how to play Omaha poker. When a player considers their hole cards, there are. Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) games at the Lodge play with pot-limit betting structure, and only the high hand wins each pot. Making strong hands is relatively easy in PLO, so it is preferable to play hands that can make the nuts relatively easily. Choosing the correct hands to start betting with preflop is very important and can get a beginner player winning poker hands right off the hop. Whenever your starting hand involves a small card, it is probably unplayable. One important thing to keep in. Big-O uses the rules of Omaha, but each player gets five hole cards instead of four. You want hands that can hit the flop hard like 8 9 10 J . In Short Deck, there is the Rule of 6 and 3. Starting Hand Requirements. What factors contribute to a good hand. Knowing what hands to avoid and what hands to go to battle with is fundamental. 8 ♦ 8 ♣ 6 ♥ 6 ♠ is a dreadful starting hand in Omaha; only playable as a very late position steal. The best starting hands in PLO. In Short Deck Hold’em, your chances of flopping an open-ended straight draw are 19% (compared to 10% in a full-deck game). 8% of the time. The next thing you must know about PLO is that while hand rankings remain the same, much stronger hands tend to win at showdown. However, other strong hands include AAQQ double-suited, AAJT double-suited, and AAJJ double. You'd probably think I was salty after losing with KKxx. Learn the Best Omaha Starting Hands by Heart. For example, $2/$4 Omaha has a small blind of $2 and a big blind of $4. Any five unpaired cards with the highest among them not being greater than 8 is considered as a low hand. Omaha poker is the second most popular poker variant behind Texas Hold’em and is best played between two to ten players. The best starting hand in Omaha Hi-Lo is one that has both a high and low potential like A-2-3-4 double-suited. Best Starting Hand in Hi-Lo Explained. Pot limit Omaha 8 (a. 8% of the time on the flop. Some of the best Omaha poker hands are known as “rundowns”. 27. 17. The best starting hands in Omaha Hi-Lo are A-A-2-3 double-suited followed by A-A-2-4 double-suited. Here is a mini poker guide for beginners who want to know 5 card PLO poker rules. The rules are as follows: One player is the dealer, with the small and big blind situated to the left of the button. What follows are eight common mistakes I see beginning PLO players make. Position. A hand like J-T-Q-K double matching will also have good equity against. There are around 2. The 4 high cards provide some. exactly two of these 5 hole-cards must be used to. Pocket pairs (e. With so many possible 4-card combinations it is actually the suits, closeness of the cards and pairs as well as the high card strength that makes the difference between a strong starting hand and a weak one. 1. • If the betting is expensive and an ace hasn’t appeared on the table, be careful, as you could be beaten for the low. The suitedness of the hand. GG Poker introduced 5-Card PLO Omaha tables and after that it became the best option due to a combination of the following features: Lots of weak players. When deciding what starting hands to play, there are a few things you need to consider. Starting hands in Pot-Limit Omaha are grouped by structure. A A J T ds. Any five unpaired cards with the highest among them not being greater than 8 is considered as a low hand. Do flushes count in Omaha Hi-Lo? Flushes and straights are ignored for the low, meaning. With a flush draw, you are almost always looking to hold the nut flush draw to the ace. Let’s watch as a hand of PLO poker plays out, step by step. Similarly, any hand consisting of five cards having a value 9 or greater than 9 does not qualify to win as a low hand. Tight Aggressive charts below. In Omaha Hi-Lo, the pot is instead split between the highest and lowest-ranking cards. I will now discuss some of the most profitable starting hands in this game and a few suggestions about whether and how to play them. e. The latter means that players can split the pot, with different high- and low-hand winners. Plo Starting Hand Ranges. Ramp Up Aggression Against Passive Players. The Hi-Lo version needs you to have two cards that qualify you for the low-hand stand-off. It has been known to be the “juicier” of the poker games due to the wild action you’ll find. We believe that it’s extremely important to make use of the strength buckets because the amount of combinations in 5-card PLO is very large. That’s due to the small preflop equity differences between different starting hands. If you want to know the best Omaha poker hands, you’ve come to the right place. Q-Q-T-T 30. This is a holding like J-T-9-8 and the best type of rundown is, of course, double-suited. Flopping something strong is not that hard when you have four cards to start with. Now we can look at some real PLO starting hands and compare the number of ‘live’ combinations that they contain. So head over to Spartan Poker and play real money poker games and find out for yourself. Poker Hand Rankings. The very best PLO8 and O8 starting hands are known as ‘suited babies’, that is to say small suited cards with an ace suited with at least one other card. Flop - Once all betting is complete, three community cards are placed in the centre of the table which each player may use to help create a 5-card hand along with exactly 2 of their hole-cards. No matter what poker game you're playing, passive preflop actions come with a huge downside: You never get to win the pot preflop when. The first one is that it is played with four cards instead of the traditional two in NLHE. On the flop you. A wide selection of accurate pre-flop simulations covering different stack sizes and rake structures for PLO 4 card , and PLO 5 card. Like the no. It has some similarities as Texas Hold’em but there are a few differences as well. You should look to raise and reraise with these hands and go all-in before the flop if possible. That’s because when it connects with the flop it connects HARD. With fewer cards in the deck, you’ll hit your outs more often too. and 2 high cards which can lead to nut flushes and straights. PLO is a game of making the nut-hand and busting players who do not have the discipline or knowledge to fold 2nd-best hands. Because sixteen cards are removed from the deck, royal flushes appear much more often in 6+ Poker. A A K K is the best Omaha starting hand, but right next to it is, surprisingly, A A J T as it has much more straight potential than the third-best hand, A A Q Q. While AA23 double suited is the best possible Omaha Hi/Lo starting hand, hands like A♦ A♠ 9♣ 7♥ are trap hands. Pot Limit Omaha 8 Revealed Expanded Edition: Expanded and Updated. Below we’ve listed the best 30. 100% up to €500 and €40 free play . Note that this is also a double-suited hand which is a nice bonus. Some of the topics we cover include the changes from proper No Limit Hold'em tactics, constructing opening ranges, the best places to find PLO training videos, three-betting, the importance of position, cold-calling preflop, and. If you want to learn how to play specific starting hands like a pro, read one of the articles below. We made the PLO Matrix, a PLO starting hand chart based on 6max monker outputs. Unplayable starting hands. Omaha is played with four hole cards and five community cards. To search for a specific topic, use our search page here. Hand values in Omaha Poker tend to be higher because players start with 4 hole cards instead of 2. PLO-5 is a variant version of Omaha poker. Even the best starting hands that have been mentioned already are pretty vulnerable. For an improved article-browsing experience, go to our primary blog. PLO starting hand rankings, with a focus on deep stacked loose action full ring cash games. AAKK, AAJ10. Omaha hi lo or "Omaha 8" is similar to PLO / pot-limit Omaha (Omaha 'high'). The magic of the Matrix is using 2 2-card no limit grids stacked on top of each other to give us 4 cards of information. Learning the top 20 or 30 starting hands by heart is the best way to go about it, as it will make your first few sessions much easier. It's all about Big O Strategy from small risk to BIG reward and advanced concepts from the best of the best. Marginal Hands in 5 card poker. ). So many combinations of hands in PLO have an extremely similar change of winning pre-flop, for example a hand like a a k k is a very marginal favourite to win pre-flop against a hand like q j 10 9. Pot Limit Omaha is, first and foremost, a game in which a player can only bet or raise up to the current size of the pot. When AQ is suited, it makes the odds of winning 20%. Double suited is good, suited aces are good, big cards are good, pairs are good , connectedness is good. PLO Starting Hands Chart. . Pot Limit Omaha (PLO) How To play correctly Pot Limit Omaha (also referred to as PLO or simply Omaha) offers a varied and exciting alternative to Texas Hold’em. It contains both basic and advanced Pot Limit Omaha strategy. . ) Another round of betting takes place starting with the Small-Blind (SB) (or whichever remaining position is earliest) and. When to play aggressively. When reading this, keep in mind that in pot limit mixing up your play is VERY. I thought I'd write down some stuff marking my 1 year of PLO. So, all hands listed below should be double-suited: Aces with other big pairs (down to pocket 9s) A-A-J-T (mathematically the second best starting hand after A-A-K-K) Double suited Aces with any two cards; 8-9-10-J. Here are some tips on how to become a winning player in PLO by fixing your biggest leaks. When you’re reading an article from the. Player 3 wins the low, using the 3-5 in their hand along with the A-2-4 on. There are 16,432 different starting hands in Omaha Hi-Lo Holdem (considering equivalence relations). The best Omaha players will show up with a hand that is currently the nuts, but has redraws to better hands; that's where you make your serious money. How aggressively you should play depends also on. 1. Except Omaha hi lo is the split-pot version. Plus, we’ll explain the differences between hand selection in PLO and Texas Hold’em. The first thing to know about making a strong bluff in Stud is the odds of players actually having strong hands. When the. Post flop – TAG. Daily races with shared PLO4/PLO5 leaderboards for several stakes. Compare that to the 30 you get in a casino and you're laughing. Wide range of stakes: from PLO2$ to PLO40K$. All hands in the above top 30 rundown should be double suited, which implies that two cards should belong to one suit and the other two cards should belong to another suit. So head over to Spartan Poker and play real money poker games and find out for yourself. Prepare for Variance. Rundowns. Best Omaha Poker Site Reviews. This PLO course is perfect for beginner players as it teaches the fundamentals,. The first hand category is made up of all starting hands with a pair. This range includes high-pairs and double-paired hands. Many poker players value the AQs above J-J and 10-10 as they consider this poker hand to be the second-best drawing hand. Everyone knows that an offsuit 7-2 is the Hold’em hand that performs worst of all. 5-card omaha is an exciting variant of omaha where each player is dealt 5 hole-cards on the first betting round (preflop) . Mastering Pot-Limit Omaha: The Modern Aggressive Approach (D&B Poker) Check Price on Amazon. Even the best starting hands that have been mentioned already are pretty vulnerable. We see PLO8, which I call high/lo. . , A K Q J 10. In other words, double-suited hands with big cards and big pairs are the best possible hands. When reading this, keep in mind that in pot limit mixing up your play is. Best starting hands in Omaha hi-lo. 3. In the first two lessons, I gave a few guidelines on how to approach most PLO games. For example: Pair of Aces, Kings, Queens, Jacks with high card connectors like 10, 9. Use this PLO starting hand chart plus basic strategy tips to win in PLO. The nuttiness of the hand. The way hands are put together can get mind-boggling. In a sense, that is. the best starting hands in omaha. Compare that to the 30 you get in a casino and you're laughing. In other words, pocket pairs become very strong hands on the flop 150% more often compared to offsuit broadway hands. Pot-limit Omaha is the most popular poker variation after Texas Hold’em and is also a community poker game. 3. This creates a different strategy dynamic from Texas hold’em. Ideally, you would have a hand that falls into two Group 1s, or a Group 1 plus a Group 2. The last kind is weak hands and garbage hands, to be avoided. Advanced Pot-Limit Omaha: LAG Play: 2. Pre-flop equities run much closer in PLO, so it is not as common to have a huge equity advantage. 2. Many players make a mistake of thinking that Player 1 will win the low hand since A-2 is lower than 6-7. 3 PLO Starting Hand Factors. This is the betting structure that works best with Omaha poker, so it has become the standard while No Limit games are rare. Starting hands in Pot-Limit Omaha are grouped by structure. The PLO Matrix is a preflop learning tool custom tailored for different rake levels and stack sizes. Poor pre-flop play will result in poor flop play, which results in poor turn play, and so on. The next-best. It's much more ambiguous in Omaha than Holdem and very dependent on the number of opponents, i. It should be easy to see why the 3 in the hand A A 10 3 is not really that useful. Preflop play in Pot Limit Omaha can be daunting. The split pot rule makes it a very different game to Omaha-high. As per the Omaha Hi Lo starting hands point system, when playing a pot limit Omaha online game, it takes 25 points to call, 40 points to raise and above 50 to re-raise. If you don't have a pair, select your highest two cards. If you don't have a pair, select your highest two cards. (the best hand). This kind of hand is very strong because it can be played for both high and low, which gives it great scoop potential. Double suited means that the A-2 is suited and the A-3 is suited as well. For the sake of clarity, the strong hand potential of a starting hand includes the following aspects: Overall nut components. Again, poker is a game of skill, and strong players with the best poker strategy will almost always win over a long period. High-pair hands that also have different combinations working for them are much stronger than ‘bare pairs’ hands. Check Price on Amazon. of course,. 6-Max Loose Aggressive Start Hand Charts (Suggested for advanced players. 60-Minute Master: PLO Part 3, Starting Hands. Hands like As-Ac-Ks-Kc are powerhouse hands in Omaha Hi. a. P. The next 4 best starting hands are A-A-J-10, A-A-Q-Q. Therefore, you want to be able to hold the best hand and the best starting point for this is a preselection of the hands that you can play. ago. All pot-limit Omaha games are the same in terms of rules and format. Ideally, the starting hand should be good for both good high and low hands. read. The top right of the grid is for double suited hands and the bottom left is for single suited hands. Omaha can be quite extreme and swingy so stick to your plan and play games that are appropriate to your level. PLO has 270,725 possible starting hands, so it is easy to see why preflop mistakes are more common in PLO games. That is 3. Big O Strategy. A fantastic resource for leveling up you're Big O game. For example, a high pair combined with two suited cards to the ace, or some wrapable cards combined with two suited cards to the ace. The Probability of Being Dealt Seven-Stud Starting Hands (First. On the next grid, you select the best two cards in your hand. Because you have an extra card, it makes pre-flop that much more important. You continue flat betting $5 until the true count escalates to +2, at which point you increase your bet to 2 base units, i.