Poker starting hands - time for a rethink?

There's a reason why Googling "starting hands" throws up 24,500,000 entries.

After all, as Julie Andrews observed, "Let's start at the very beginning. That's a very good place to start."

And I'm struggling to pick any holes in this article by Matt Pusateri on the kind of Texas Holdem starting hand that looks more attractive than it actually is.

I just question whether we're right to make starting hands poker's Big Issue. In tournament poker especially - and I include single-table sit and gos here - you soon learn that you don't have the luxury of being able to stick around for the monster cards as long as your bankroll and schedule permit.

Tournament poker is like the IT industry. Stand still and you die.

In tournament poker, the point comes where you'd better believe KJo and KQ are viable starting hands or else you're just a chair-warmer. What makes them so however, is not how they stack up on a percentages chart but how cheaply you can get to see a flop with them. If it costs me nothing more than one bet to see three more cards with hands like these, then I'm happy.

That's consideration number one. Consideration number two is how close the button is to my left arm. If I'm first to play post-flop, then that danger hand is a potentially toxic asset; less so if I'm last to go.

Consideration three, however, is the big one. Have my hole cards and the flop dovetailed perfectly or smashed against each other like a train wreck? And am I big enough and wise enough to know - really know - the difference?

Trips and I could be in business. Two pair and I'm tentatively interested. Top pair, sizable kicker, however, and it all comes down to my stack size. If I'm reasonably loaded, I'm making a biggish wager to find out where I am. If I'm raised and I have no read on the the raiser's bluffing tendencies, then I'm out.

(If I'm short-stacked, then I'm probably all-in to start with but that's a different matter).

So enough of starting hands. Recognising the flop that ends your hand; there's the trick...
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