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Starting Hand Notation and Terminology

There are (52 × 51)/2 = 1,326 distinct possible combinations of two hole cards from a standard 52-card deck. However, since suits are only relevant for flushes, many of these hands are indistinguishable from the point of view of pre-flop strategy. In fact, considering suits to be equivalent unless both cards are the same suit, there are precisely 169 distinct possible starting hands in holdem.

As an example, although J♥ J♣ and J♦ J♠ are distinct combinations of hole cards, they are indistinguishable as starting hands. Any starting hand comprising two jacks is called pocket jacks and is denoted JJ. Similarly, any starting hand comprised of two aces is called pocket aces and is denoted AA, and any starting hand comprised of two sevens is called pocket sevens and is denoted 77. Each of these starting hands is called a pocket pair.

The starting hands which are not pocket pairs fall into two classes – the suited hands and the unsuited hands. An example of a suited hand is 8♠ 7♠. Any starting hand comprised of an 8 and a 7 of the same suit is called 8-7 suited and is denoted 87s, where "s" is an abbreviation for "suited". An example of an unsuited hands is Q♣ 9♦. Any starting hand comprised of a Q and a 9 of different suits is called queen-nine offsuit and is denoted Q9 (or sometimes Q9o, where "o" is an abbreviation for "offsuit"). Remember, an "s" always denoted a suited starting hand, while the absence of an "s" always denotes an offsuit starting hand.

In almost all poker writing, the rank of "10" is abbreviated with the letter "T", so that all the ranks can be written with a single character, unless cards are featured pictorially when "10" is often used.

Consecutive cards of the same suit are called suited connectors. Many starting hands have colloquial names. A full list would be quite long, but some examples are "American Airlines" or "Pocket Rockets" for AA, "Big Slick" for AK, "Fish Hooks" for JJ, "Dolly Parton" for 95 (a reference to the film "9 to 5") and "Doyle Brunson" for T2 (Brunson won two WSOP bracelets with this hand, which would ordinarily be considered a weak starting hand).

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