I've done a whole series of these 'how-to' types of articles on Steemit and I re-did one here on Scorum last week but it left a sour taste in my mouth, so this is newly written. Enjoy and if you have questions, let me know in the comments! I'd love to help. 

Starting Hands

What is a 'starting hand'? In Texas Hold'em, each player is dealt two cards, face down. These are known as your 'hole cards' and you use one or both of them along with the five cards that will be dealt in the middle for everyone to use, called the 'community cards' to create the best five card hand to win the pot. 

So what do you start with? Better question; what should you start with? Here's a basic chart:

I made it, don't judge me. 

Now one thing about starting hands that I'm not going to talk about right now is "position"  Position is understood as where a player (you) are in relation to the button - the dealer button. This adds a whole extra layer of complication but I think it's best to simply start with good vs. bad general starting hands. So check out the highlighted letters. The bright blue are the hands to start with no matter what. If you see a small 'o' next to the capital letters, this means 'off suit'. If there's no 'o', it means the cards are suited and therefore even better. The lighter blue capital letters are ok to play and the kinda orangey ones,  just no. Orangey means stop. Don't do it. Nope.

Play and Position

This is a little bit redundant from my last post so i'll be brief. There's the button; and to the left of the button is the 'small blind', and to their left is the 'big blind'. Here's my graphic:

I kinda like this one; made it tew!

The blinds are 'forced play'. Every player has to be the blind and every blind has to put the set amount into the pot. Everyone is playing to the big blind. 

Ok, so let's say my friend @mikey is the big blind, @swolesome is the small blind and I'm sitting in seat one, 'under the gun'. This means that after everyone is given their hole cards, I'm 'under the gun'; I'm the first to act. What I do is an exact reaction to what Mikey has in the big blind. Meaning, do I call Mikey - do I put the same amount of chips into the pot as he has been forced to? Or, do I fold, and throw away or 'muck' my cards? OR do I raise Mikey and force everyone else on the table to call or raise me?

I decide to raise Mikey, because I know how he plays and this is a good way to get under his skin and make him make a mistake.... or because I have the best starting hand, AA and I play according. The 'action' goes around the table until it gets to @swolesome, who calls my bet, and then finally back to @mikey, who is 'on tilt' (mad and not thinking rationally, as I had planned, muahahaa) re-raises me... meaning he puts even MORE chips into the pot. Because I have the Best Starting Hand, AA, I quickly go 'all in', @mikey calls, the community cards come and I've won the pot. Ta-da! That's a brief description of position and action. I'll get into more detail another time.

In Conclusion

If you want to play poker, look over my feeble amazing table and search up 'starting hands for texas hold'em' online. Get a good feel for what is a good hand to start with and what you should automatically much and start there. 

Good luck, have fun, I'll catch you on the felt!