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Poker Starting Hand Quiz
Ten hands, graded against a real preflop chart — with the chart's exact mix shown every time.
Starting hand quiz
Ten hands, graded against a real chart. The chart's exact mix is shown after every answer.
You are first into the pot. Raise or fold? The beginner starting point — one decision, two options.
AA
You are first to act from CO at a 100bb table. Nobody has entered the pot.
Score
0/0
Streak
0
Best 0
Question
1/10
Which hands to play, and from where
Preflop is the one decision you face every single hand, and the one where a chart can actually tell you the answer. Getting it right costs nothing and compounds over every pot you play.
This quiz shows a hand and a situation and asks for your action. It grades against a real chart rather than an opinion, and shows you the chart's own mix afterwards.
How the grading works
Open-or-fold questions are graded against StackedPoker's RFI baseline, ported from the backend's 100bb cash opening ranges. Big-blind defence questions are graded against a complete fold/call/3-bet chart read from Modern Poker Theory's own chart images, cited by page and figure.
Real charts play many hands two ways on purpose. Where the chart is close to indifferent, both answers are accepted — marking a 52/48 hand wrong would be teaching you something false.
Common mistakes
- Playing the same hands from every seat
- The chart opens far fewer hands from under the gun than from the button, because more players still have to act behind you.
- Expecting every hand to have one answer
- A chart that plays a hand 50/50 is not undecided — it is telling you the two lines are worth the same, and that picking either consistently is fine.
- Treating a practical chart as solver output
- The opening ranges here are documented as simplified practical ranges, not solver-exact. They are a sound default, not a ceiling.
Practical examples
- AKo from UTG, first in
- A standard open — the chart raises it every time.
- JTs from UTG, first in
- A mixed open: the chart raises it 70% of the time and folds the rest.
- A5s from BTN, first in
- A standard open — the chart raises it every time.
- A5s in the big blind facing a button open
- 3bet 100% — Hand Range 82: BB vs BN Open, p.244.
- KQo in the big blind facing a button open
- call 61%, 3bet 39% — Hand Range 82: BB vs BN Open, p.244.
- 72o in the big blind facing a button open
- fold 100% — Hand Range 82: BB vs BN Open, p.244.
Key terms
- 3-Bet Spot
- Re-raising a preflop open — creates a polarized range pot.
- Cold Call
- Calling a raise when no money has been previously invested.
- Raise First In
- Opening the pot with a raise — the most common preflop spot.
Key takeaway
Learn the opening ranges for your seat first, then the big blind defence chart. Those two decisions cover the large majority of the hands you will ever be dealt.
Frequently asked questions
Which hands should a beginner play preflop?
Fewer than most beginners do, and fewer from early position than from late. Start with the open-or-fold mode above — it grades every hand against a real opening chart for the seat you are in.
Where do the answers come from?
Open-or-fold uses StackedPoker's RFI baseline, ported from the backend's 100bb cash opening ranges. Big-blind defence uses a complete chart from Modern Poker Theory, cited by page and figure on each answer.
Why is the same hand sometimes a raise and sometimes a fold?
Because real charts mix. When a chart plays a hand close to half the time each way, the quiz accepts either answer and shows you the exact frequencies.
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Source: Graded against lib/learn/preflopBaselines.ts (RFI, ported from the backend's 100bb cash open ranges, documented as simplified practical ranges) and lib/learn/bbDefenseComplete.ts (Modern Poker Theory, chapter 5, cited by page and figure per matchup). The quiz decides nothing itself.