Sklansky Hand Rankings

To simplify the presentation of some of the strategies that follow, the starting hands have been placed in appropriate groupings, according to the sklansky hand rankings. The reason for this is that most of the hands in each grouping can be played roughly the same before the flop in many, but not all, situations. However, there are many exceptions, which will be discussed in the text. In fact, the starting hands actually move up and down the hand rankings depending on the circumstance. Because of this, it can be a mistake to rigidly adhere to the hand rankings. Again, make sure that you understand all the discussion concerning how the individual hands play.

These hand rankings (with some modifications) first appeared in David Sklansky’s book Essays on Poker .They are slightly different from the rankings that appear in the original version (pre 1997) of Sklansky’s book Hold ‘em Poker. The alterations reflect the structure change from one small blind to two blinds which causes more multiway pots and higher pot odds – especially on the flop.

Also reflected is the fact that the players have become tougher and generally more aggressive as the years have gone by. This has raised the value of suited hands, especially suited connectors. Medium pairs also have gone up in value because you no longer should automatically give up when an overcard flops, especially if the pot is being contested short-handed. The rankings are as follows, with an "s" indicating suited and an "x" indicating a small card. Note that a 10 is represented as "T." Also, if no "s" appears, then the hand is not suited.

These rankings reflect not only which group each starting hand belongs to, but its approximate order in that group as well. In reality, it’s usually only necessary to know in which group a starting hand belongs. Consequently, Tables I and I1 provide an easier scheme for memorizing the group for each starting hand. Any hand not listed in the tables is ranked below Group 8. Once the tables are memorized, this system will facilitate applying many of the concepts that follow. (For those of you who are interested in the rationale behind these rankings, see Hold ‘em Poker by David Sklansky, get this poker book for free.) However, we want to state that by the time you reach expert status you shouldn’t be thinking in terms of hand groups. At this point in your playing career your starting hand decisions should be based on the intrinsic value of each hand in each particular situation. But if you are just getting started playing, we know of no better approach.

Group 1: AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AKs
Group 2: TT, AQs, AJs, KQs, AK
Group 3: 99, JTs, QJs, KJs, ATs, AQ
Group 4: T9s, KQ, 88, QTs, 98s, J9s, AJ, KTs
Group 5: 77, 87s, Q9s, T8s, KJ, QJ, JT, 76s, 97s, Axs, 65s
Group 6: 66, AT, 55,86s, KT, QT, 54s, K9s, J8s, 75s
Group 7: 44, J9, 64s, T9, 53s, 33, 98,43s, 22, Kxs, T7s, Q8s
Group 8: 87, A9, Q9, 76,42s, 32s, 96s, 85s, 58, J7s, 65, 54, 74s,
K9, T8