Starting-hand selection is a critical but frequently overlooked aspect of Texas hold ’em, especially for novice players.

My recommendation for entry-level players (and for all players, really) is to play hands that are likely to be stronger than your opponents’ hands. That may sound overly simplistic, but the basic logic behind this sensible approach is that you will make the best hand more often than your opponent.

In the early levels of no-limit hold ’em tournaments, you can do well by playing a fairly tight, aggressive style of poker. That said, you should not play too tightly, because that will result in you blinding out and getting no action from opponents due to your snug image.

Assuming you have a fairly deep chip stack, you should play only premium hands — pocket pairs 6-6 or better, and A-Q or better — from early position. As you get closer to the button, you can add more starting hands such as 2-2, Q-J, A-3 suited, 9-8 suited and so on.

The reason you should loosen up your starting-hand requirements as you get closer to the button is that you are more likely to have position throughout the hand. To sum up position in one sentence: Position lets you control the size of the pot, allowing you to play smaller pots with marginal hands and larger pots with strong hands.

As the blinds get higher and your chip stack starts shrinking in terms of the number of big blinds you have in it, you will have to increase your level of aggression a bit, perhaps raising a very wide range of hands from late position.

If I have around 30 big blinds and the action is folded to me, I will raise the button with any pocket pair, an ace with any other card, K-5 or better, J-8 or better, and almost any two suited cards.

You have to make sure you are always paying attention to your opponents’ stack sizes as well. If your opponents have shallow stacks of 18 big blinds or fewer, you actually have to tighten up a bit because they will be more inclined to go all in over the top of your initial raise. At that point, you have to play hands that have good showdown value, which cuts out hands such as Q-8 and 4-3 suited, as those hands tend to lose once all five cards are on board.

In games with smaller stakes, if you’re prudent about hand selection, you should expect to play fewer hands than your loose, splashy opponents. While playing a reasonable range of cards might make you feel as if you’re not part of the action, you will win a much larger portion of the hands you play compared with everyone else. You can also expect to have great results in the long run while most of your opponents are losing.