Starting Hand Selection:Chen Formula : Sklansky Starting Hand Groups

• Apr 22, 2015 Charts ranking the 169 different starting hands in Texas hold'em can be very intriguing, but it's important to remember they are of limited value. No-limit hold’em cash game strategy.
• Never use a Limit Hold’em hand chart in a No‐Limit Hold’em game. Some hands, like the previously mentioned suited connectors and pocket pairs, go way up in value in No‐Limit, and can be played from almost any position in loose, passive games.

The Sklansky & Malmuth starting hands table.

Playing fewer hands. No Limit and Limit. The most popular variation of Texas holdem is no limit. Most of the starting hand advice below is written with no limit play in mind, but the majority of it is also good for limit holdem. I suggest playing even tighter in limit play than in no limit because the opportunity to make up for playing with an.

Group	Hands
1	AA, AKs, KK, QQ, JJ
2	AK, AQs, AJs, KQs, TT
3	AQ, ATs, KJs, QJs, JTs, 99
4	AJ, KQ, KTs, QTs, J9s, T9s, 98s, 88
5	A9s - A2s, KJ, QJ, JT, Q9s, T8s, 97s, 87s, 77, 76s, 66
6	AT, KT, QT, J8s, 86s, 75s, 65s, 55, 54s
7	K9s - K2s, J9, T9, 98, 64s, 53s, 44, 43s, 33, 22
8	A9, K9, Q9, J8, J7s, T8, 96s, 87, 85s, 76, 74s, 65, 54, 42s, 32s
9	All other hands not required above.

This table comes from the book Hold 'em Poker for Advanced Players by David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth.

This is a strategy book for limit Hold'em, but the starting hand groups do have some practical use in no limit Hold'em.

What is the Sklansky and Malmuth starting hands table?

The table is a general ranking of hands in Texas Hold'em.

The Sklansky and Malmuth starting hands table groups together certain hands in Texas Hold'em based on their strength. Starting with the strongest set of hands that you can be dealt in group 1, the hands get progressively weaker working down the table until the virtually unplayable hands in group 9.

The rough idea is that a hand in one group has roughly the same value and can be played the same way preflop as any other hand in that group.

How to use the starting hands table.

In their book, Sklansky and Malmuth provide some in-depth guidelines for starting hand strategy in limit Texas Hold'em using this table. Unfortunately, I'm not going to work out any guidelines for you for the NL Hold'em game using this table because:

1. It would be quite a tricky job.
2. It would be difficult to remember and implement.
3. Like any starting hand strategy, it would have its flaws.
4. You should avoid using strict guidelines and set rules as much as possible during play.

So really there is not a lot to take away from this table from a purely strategic perspective. Nonetheless it's interesting to see how specific starting hands compare to one another based on their preflop value.

If you're really after a starting hand strategy guideline, try the Chen Formula.

Sklansky and Malmuth hand rankings evaluation.

Although it's a very popular hand group rankings table, it's not going to do you too much good to learn the whole thing off by heart. In my opinion, the real value of this table is being able to see how different starting hands can be grouped together and ranked based on their value before the flop.

For other useful charts and tables, see the odds charts page from the Texas Hold'em tools section.

Go back to the awesome Texas Hold'em Strategy.

Can You Afford Not To Use
Poker Tracker 4?

Opening Hands Holdem

“I wouldn’t play another session of online poker without it”

“I play $25NL, and in under 1 week PT4 had paid for itself”

Texas Holdem Poker Hands Chart

Comments

Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.

Earlier this week in an article titled “Play Poker Without Looking at Your Cards? It Can Be Eye-Opening,” Martin Harris discussed the importance of position and stack sizes in no-limit hold’em tournaments, and how in some cases the hand you are dealt isn’t necessarily the most important factor influencing how you might want to proceed.

Of course, it is also important first to have an understanding of the relative strengths of starting hands in no-limit hold’em. This is particularly true for players who are just getting started with the game who might find themselves playing way too many hands or way too few hands, not having developed a ground-level knowledge of how starting hands compare.

PokerNews Editor-in-Chief Donnie Peters offers a quick introduction to some of the factors you want to consider when selecting starting hands in no-limit hold’em:

As explained in the video, one factor affecting starting hand selection is the number of opponents at the table. With full-ring (nine- or ten-handed) games it is often necessary to tighten up your starting hand requirements, whereas in short-handed games (six-handed, four-handed, heads-up) you’ll want to be looser and play more hands.

Free Texas Hold'em No Limit

Also briefly touched on are certain hand groups like big pocket pairs, hands with two Broadway cards (i.e., ace through ten), and suited hands, all of which can be playable given your position and your opponents’ styles.

The biggest pocket pairs (aces, kings, queens, and jacks) are generally always playable, while discretion sometimes needs to be used when playing middle and lower pairs, particularly in the face of a lot of preflop aggression from others.

Ace-king, ace-queen, and king-queen are often good starters that can make top pair/top kicker hands, while other hands containing two Broadway cards can sometimes fall into the category of “trouble hands” that aren’t always so easy for beginners — or even experienced players — to play postflop.

Suited aces — e.g., , — can make nut flushes, while other hands like suited connectors and suited one-gappers can be potentially profitable, too, especially if you can see a flop cheaply with them.

Probably the most important element worth recognizing for new players when it comes to starting hand selection, though, is to realize how a large percentage of the hands you’re dealt in no-limit hold’em isn’t necessarily playable on the basis of their value preflop or potential to make strong hands postflop.

In other words, while you might occasionally play “trash” hands like , , , and so on based on position, stack sizes, or your read of an opponent being tight and/or weak, you generally will toss such hands away and only get involved with stronger holdings.

In fact, for beginning players especially, it isn’t a bad practice simply to limit oneself to the better starting hands, particularly when out of position or facing a raise.

Want to stay atop all the latest in the poker world? If so, make sure to get PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and find us on both Facebook and Google+!

Poker Starting Hand Chart

• Tags

  cash game strategytournament strategyno-limit hold’emstarting hand selectionpocket pairssuited connectorssuited one-gapperspositionshort-handed strategy