Hand notation (A6s, KTo, 77)

How a starting hand is written: two ranks, then s for suited or o for offsuit, and a pair is just the rank twice.

Last updated October 16, 2026

What it means: Preflop, only the two ranks and whether the cards share a suit matter, so the 1,326 possible hands fold into 169 hand classes. Each class is written with the higher rank first.
How it is calculated: Ranks are A K Q J T 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2, where T means ten. Add s when both cards share a suit and o when they do not. A pair has no letter, because two cards of one rank can never share a suit.
Worked example: A6s is ace-six suited, such as A♠6♠, and can be dealt 4 ways. KTo is king-ten offsuit, such as K♥10♣, 12 ways. 77 is a pair of sevens, 6 ways.
Why it matters: Charts, grades and your stats are all kept per hand class. Reading the code at a glance lets you learn a chart row by row.