Sklansky’s Hand Rankings

When writer and "poker professor" David Sklansky in 1976 published his book, "Hold'em Poker", he introduced a revolutionary system for starting hand selection in Texas Hold'em. This system has since then been considered The Holy Grail of Poker.

Sklansky's "Hand Ranking Groups", which he later explored in greater detail in the book, "Hold'em Poker for Advanced Players" (co-written by Mason Malmuth), has since its introduction in 1976 been at the centre of all theory and debate on starting hands, and today you'll be hard pressed to find top pros not able to recite Sklansky's groups in their sleep.

Texas hold 'em has changed a lot since 1976. Today the game is played much more aggressively thanks mainly to the massive increase in young and bold online players, but now 30 years after he introduced his theory on starting hand selection, David Sklansky's system is as fundamentally important as it was back then.

Players may adjust the system to their own style of play, but the structure of the system remains the same – the starting hands in Texas Hold'em carefully grouped by relative strength.

Sklansky's system separates the playable Texas Hold'em starting hands into eight different groups. Each group can be played from various positions at the table with various aggression, and Sklansky goes into great detail when defining the strength of each group relative to particularly position.

When a poker player reaches a certain level of skill, that player is encouraged to start "acting outside the groups" to some extend, but Sklansky's sound advice is that all beginners and intermediate players stick very closely to the groups.

Sklansky even goes as far as to encourage all poker players to memorize the eight groups. Though this really is no surprise, since Sklansky himself came up with the groups, it's still not a bad idea. Because whether you find Sklansky's system too tight and rigid or not – it works. Beginners, intermediate players, and even fairly advanced and experienced players will all benefit from keeping Sklansky's system in mind.

Sklansky separates the Texas Hold'em starting hands into these eight groups relative to strength. The starting hands within each group are also sorted by strength with the strongest hand shown first:

Group 1:

Group 2:

Group 3:

Group 4:

Group 5:

(Notice that A4 represents all hands with an Ace and a card below Nine in the same suit)

Group 6:

Group 7:

(Notice that K3 represents all hands with a King and a card below Nine in the same suit)

Group 8:

All other starting hands are according to Sklansky unplayable and should be folded regardless of position and situation. Sklansky's groups are used to determine the starting hands you should play from early, middle and late position at the table. Be aware that the action at your table – specifically any raises before you – greatly influence the groups you should play.

In his books, David Sklansky goes into great detail when explaining the strengths of starting hands relative to position and betting situations. These very thorough examinations of each hand should be studied just there – in his books.

Sklansky has the following system describing which starting hands to play from which positions (10-handed table). Notice that if a table plays very loose, you should add an extra playable group to all suggestions:

Early Position (first three positions after the big blind)

With no previous raiser: Raise with Groups 1 and 2 Call with Group 3

When facing a raise: Reraise with Group 1 Call with Groups 2 and 3

Middle Position (the next two positions at the table)

With no previous raiser: Raise with Groups 1, 2 and 3 Call with Group 4

When facing a raise: Reraise with Group 1 Call with Groups 2 and 3

Late Position (two positions before the dealer and the dealer)

With no previous raiser: Raise with Groups 1, 2, 3 and 4 (Include Group 5 if the action is folded around to you) Call with Groups 5, 6, 7 and 8

When facing a raise: Reraise with Group 1 Call with Group 2 and 3 plus suited hands or pocket pairs from Group 4 and 5

Blind Positions:

Raise or reraise with AA and KK. Call with Groups 1 – 8 depending on how many players are in the hand, the positions they are in and whether there's been raises and/or reraises.

An early position raise would require you to play only the top groups, while loads of callers all the way around the table makes any suited hand playable.