[Cooker]

In my opinion, your starting hand strategy is only important in that it keeps you out of situations that are going to be hard for you later in the hand. For instance, if you play 6789 ds (which is a pretty much worthless starting hand in O8) you better be able to play near perfectly post flop with and be against very bad opponents that will give too much action with weird holdings. If both of these conditions are not met, you are giving money away by playing the hand.

If you flop a straight with this hand and all the money goes in, you are going to be way behind most of the time. Even if the flop comes a real nice 567 rainbow you are going to be a mild equity dog against an A2 with any running hand to be your straight. However, if he is going to get the money all in he will usually have the nut low + flush draw (or even worse the same straight with any low) which will have you putting it all in as nearly a 2 to 1 dog.

Also, you will often make non nut straights that will be hard to get off of without losing money when you are beaten.

I try to play hands that can scoop. Ones that are capable of making strong 2 way hands or if they make a strong high only hand a low won't be very likely. KQJT doesn't contain the defects I discussed with 6789 since it will be more likely to flop a nut straight and when it flops a straight it is less likely that low hands will be made.