# Poker starting hands: 1,326 combos, 169 hands, and how to write them down

Source: https://poker.academy/blog/post/poker-starting-hands-combos-notation
Author: Jan Przysucha
Published: 2026-09-15 · Updated: 2026-09-17
Category: Theory

![Poker starting hands: 1,326 combos, 169 hands, and how to write them down](https://poker.academy/wp-media/2026/09/starting-hands-hero-v3.jpg)

Before you can read a preflop chart, study a solver or talk about a hand with a friend, you need two things. You need to know how many different hands you can be dealt. And you need to be able to write any of them down in a few characters.

This is lesson 2 of our poker basics series. The video below covers it in three minutes. The article goes a step further: it shows the math behind every number and adds a few things we use every day in the app.

## 1,326 ways to be dealt two cards

A deck has 52 cards. Your first card can be any of 52, your second any of the remaining 51. That gives **52 × 51 = 2,652** ordered pairs.

Order doesn’t matter in poker, though. A♠︎K♥︎ and K♥︎A♠︎ are the same hand, and each hand was counted twice. So we divide by two: **2,652 ÷ 2 = 1,326**. That’s every distinct two-card starting hand, and it’s the number every range in poker adds up to.

1,326 is too many to think about one by one. Luckily, poker makes it easier: no suit is worth more than another. A♠︎K♠︎ and A♥︎K♥︎ play exactly the same before the flop. That lets us group combos into far fewer hands.

![From 2,652 ordered deals to 1,326 combos to 169 hands](https://poker.academy/wp-media/2026/09/starting-hands-funnel-v2.jpg)

## Unpaired hands: suited and offsuit

Take ace-king. There are four aces and four kings, so there are **4 × 4 = 16** ways to be dealt AK. They split into two groups that play differently:

- **Suited** – both cards share a suit (A♠︎K♠︎, A♥︎K♥︎, A♦︎K♦︎, A♣︎K♣︎): **4 combos**.
- **Offsuit** – different suits (A♠︎K♥︎, A♠︎K♦︎ and so on): **16 − 4 = 12 combos**.

![4 by 4 grid of every ace-king combo: the 4 suited combos on the diagonal, 12 offsuit elsewhere](https://poker.academy/wp-media/2026/09/starting-hands-ak16-v2.jpg)

Suited hands are stronger because they make flushes more often. How much more often? Here’s the count for all five board cards:

- **Suited:** 11 cards of your suit are left among the 50 unseen cards. You need at least 3 of them on the board: C(11,3)·C(39,2) + C(11,4)·39 + C(11,5) = 122,265 + 12,870 + 462 = 135,597 boards out of C(50,5) = 2,118,760. That’s **6.40%**.
- **Offsuit:** each of your two suits has 12 cards left, and you need 4 of them on the board: 2 × (C(12,4)·38 + C(12,5)) = 2 × 19,602 = 39,204 boards. That’s **1.85%**.

![Bar chart: suited hands make a flush by the river 6.40% of the time, offsuit 1.85%](https://poker.academy/wp-media/2026/09/starting-hands-flush-v2.jpg)

The same 4 + 12 split works for every unpaired hand, from AK down to 32.

## Pairs: 6 combos

A pair needs two cards of the same rank, so it can never be suited. There are four kings, and you choose two of them: C(4,2) = **6 combos** (K♠︎K♥︎, K♠︎K♦︎, K♠︎K♣︎, K♥︎K♦︎, K♥︎K♣︎, K♦︎K♣︎).

![The six combos of pocket kings shown as card pairs](https://poker.academy/wp-media/2026/09/starting-hands-kk6-v2.jpg)

## 169 starting hands

Put it together and 1,326 combos collapse into **169 hands**:

| Type | Hands | Combos each | Combos total |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Pairs | 13 | 6 | 78 |
| Suited | 78 | 4 | 312 |
| Offsuit | 78 | 12 | 936 |
| **Total** | **169** |  | **1,326** |

Why 78? There are 13 ranks, and an unpaired hand is any two different ranks: C(13,2) = 78. Each of those 78 exists once as suited and once as offsuit.

This is the 13×13 grid you see in every preflop chart, including ours. Pairs run down the diagonal, suited hands sit above it, offsuit hands below:

![13 by 13 grid of the 169 starting hands: pairs on the diagonal, suited hands above, offsuit hands below, with combo totals 78, 312 and 936](https://poker.academy/wp-media/2026/09/starting-hands-169-grid.jpg)

One thing to keep in mind when you read a chart: every cell looks the same size, but they don’t hold the same number of combos. AKo is 12 combos, AKs is 4. A chart that’s “half suited hands” is a lot less than half of all combos.

![Share of the 169 hands versus share of the 1,326 combos: offsuit hands are 70.6% of all combos](https://poker.academy/wp-media/2026/09/starting-hands-share.jpg)

## How to write hands down

### Ranks

Ace, king, queen and jack are written with their first letter. Ten is **T**, so every card is exactly one character. The rest use their number.

| Card | Written as |
| --- | --- |
| Ace | A |
| King | K |
| Queen | Q |
| Jack | J |
| Ten | T |
| Nine to two | 9 … 2 |

Always write the higher card first: **KJ**, not JK. **96**, not 69.

### Suits

To name exact cards, add a lowercase suit letter after each rank: **s** spades, **h** hearts, **d** diamonds, **c** clubs. Ace of hearts and king of spades is **AhKs**. Nine of clubs and six of diamonds is **9c6d**.

### Suited or offsuit

When the exact suits don’t matter, add **s** or **o** at the end of the hand. Don’t confuse this **s** with spades: it comes after both cards, not after one card.

| You write | It means | Combos |
| --- | --- | --- |
| AK | All ace-king | 16 |
| AKs | Ace-king suited | 4 |
| AKo | Ace-king offsuit | 12 |
| AcKc | Ace of clubs, king of clubs | 1 |
| KK | Pocket kings | 6 |

![How AK, AKo and AhKs are read: ranks, suit letters and the offsuit marker](https://poker.academy/wp-media/2026/09/starting-hands-notation.jpg)

## Two things to use right away

### Ranges in shorthand

A plus sign means “this hand and everything stronger of the same kind”:

- **QQ+** = QQ, KK, AA → 3 × 6 = **18 combos**
- **ATs+** = ATs, AJs, AQs, AKs → 4 × 4 = **16 combos**
- **22–66** = every pair from twos to sixes → 5 × 6 = 30 combos

![13 by 13 grid with QQ+ and ATs+ highlighted: 18 and 16 combos](https://poker.academy/wp-media/2026/09/starting-hands-ranges.jpg)

### Your cards change the count

Combo counts assume you don’t know any cards. As soon as you look at your hand, some combos are gone. Say you hold A♠︎Q♦︎:

- Your opponent can have **AA** only 3 ways instead of 6 – three aces are left, and C(3,2) = 3.
- **AK** drops from 16 to **12** combos (3 aces × 4 kings).
- If you held A♠︎K♦︎ instead, their AK would drop to **9** combos (3 × 3).

![Holding A♠Q♦: opponent AA drops from 6 to 3 combos, AK from 16 to 12, QQ from 6 to 3, KK stays at 6](https://poker.academy/wp-media/2026/09/starting-hands-blockers-v2.jpg)

This is called card removal, or blockers, and it’s the reason solvers talk about combos rather than hands. We’ll come back to it later in the series.

## Quick recap

- 52 × 51 ÷ 2 = **1,326** starting combos.
- Unpaired hands: **4 suited + 12 offsuit = 16** combos. Pairs: **6**.
- 13 pairs + 78 suited + 78 offsuit = **169 hands** in the 13×13 grid.
- Ranks: A K Q J T 9…2, higher card first. Suits: s h d c. Suited/offsuit: s or o at the end.

Next up in the series: how those 169 hands get turned into a strategy. If you want to see the grid in action now, open any spot in our [preflop charts](https://poker.academy/pricing) – each cell shows what the solver does with that hand. For the math side, see [Introduction to Basic Poker Math](https://poker.academy/blog/post/introduction-to-basic-poker-math).