In order to establish a tight starting hand strategy, consider a nine-handed hold em table. The first three to act after the big blind will be referred to as early position, the next two as middle position, the cut-off and the button as late position and the small and big blind as in the blinds.
In early position, you want to make absolutely sure that you only enter the pot with quality hands. In fact, it is not a bad strategy to only play hands in early position that you would be comfortable in raising with even though you have no idea what most of the table is going to do. These hands include premium pairs like Aces, Kings, Queens and Jacks as well as A-K either suited or otherwise. Any other hand would be a poor hand to raise with as too many other players at the table could have you beat. If you are in the last early position (i.e. the third person to act in the hand), you might consider throwing in Tens and A-Q either suited or otherwise as well.
In middle position, your main goal is to loosen your starting hand selection a little bit, tossing in more pairs such as Nines, Eights and Sevens while at the same time being willing to play cards like A-J, A-T and K-Q, either suited or otherwise as well . In later position once more you can loosen up your starting hand selection by taking it down to pocket Fives and A-8 either suited or otherwise, along with random big cards that are both ten or higher.
In general, these rules apply to pots that have not been raised. You can enter these pots with a raise and bump up the action with the hands mentioned in the previous two paragraphs. Generally speaking, your poker game will do better in the beginning stages if you try only to enter pots when you have a hand worth raising with before the flop. If you are willing to call, there is the temptation to play substandard hands. If a pot is raised however, you should immediately tighten up and only call or re-raise with the best of hands. A good general rule of thumb is that one raise warrants calling with any of the early position hands while two or more raises warrants a re-raise with Aces, Kings or Ace-King and a fold of everything else. As you get more experienced you may feel like getting a little frisky with Queens and Jacks as well, but this is a consideration for later stages of your poker development.
This is an example of a tight starting hand strategy. It is not necessarily a good strategy for professional players that are well skilled, but for starting players with little experience of how to play, it will keep you out of a lot of trouble that you otherwise might get into.
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