In most Hold 'Em games, the most critical decision you will make in the play of the hand is whether you will play the hand. Some hands, if played at every opportunity, will be long-term winners. Such a hand is A ? A ?. Others will be long-term losers if you play them. Examples of such hands are 7? 2 ? or 8 ? 3 ? . Some hands, such as T ? 9 ? , are speculative hands, which will be profitable if played in the right situations.

You want to pick hands that are either powerful in their own right or have multiple ways to improve and win. Hands such as A? A ? or K ? K ? are powerful on their own, often winning without any further improvement. An example of a powerful multiway hand is A ? K? . It can win by pairing either card or by making a flush; it has straight potential, and, if you get really lucky, it can even win just on high-card value.

Other hands, such as 7 ? 7 ?, have speculative value, although they generally have only one way to win. If a third 7 falls on the flop, you'll have a very powerful holding, but that seldom happens so you'll usually have to give up such a hand on the flop. Not always though-even small pocket pairs can sometimes win unimproved.

As a general rule, a winning poker style requires that you only play your very best hands, folding most hands early, but in Hold 'Em it's not always clear how to determine which hands are best. There is no magic list of playable hands. Determining what kinds of hands have value in what kinds of situations is one of the skills you need to develop to become a winning poker player.
In poker theory, poker games begin with a struggle for the antes or blinds.

Theoretically a bet is a declaration of the form, "I have the best hand, give me the pot." As I pointed out in the last chapter, there are important reasons to bet other than because you have the best hand. Also there are reasons to play a hand other than it's probably the best hand.

In fairly tight games, this theoretical principle of playing the best hand is the guiding principle-it's how you'll make the most money for that game. As the game becomes looser, however, this principle based on the ante theory becomes less important, and theories based on bad players or odds become more important.