• Sklansky Malmuth Hand Groups
• Sklansky And Malmuth Starting Hands
• Sklansky Malmuth

When can I go all-in with a specific hand and how tight should I be in the push fold phase of a tournament? The Sklansky Chubukov tables provide a rudimentary answer to these questions.

In the book No-Limit Hold’em – Theory and Practice, David Sklansky and Victor Chubukov try to answer the question, „When is it definitely correct to shove all-in with a hand before the flop“. They develop a system by looking at a simple scenario: Suppose I’m in the small blind and my opponent knows my hand. When I go all-in, he only calls when he gets the right odds, otherwise he folds. Which hands can I still go all-in with profitably depending on my stack size?

Example situation in a tournament

Let‘s assume we‘re in the small blind in a tournament and we have 10 big blinds. It‘s folded to us and for some reason we accidentally flip over both our cards: Q♠ 6♠. We‘re still allowed to fold, raise or call, but of course our opponent knows our hand and can play perfectly. What should we do? Should we fold or is moving all-in still profitable, despite our opponent knowing our hand?

If we‘re holding a bombastic hand (like A♥ K♥) we can just go all-in with very large stacks – our opponent almost always has a worse hand, has to fold and we win the blinds. But what about worse hands like the queen-six from the example above?

Sklansky and Malmuth do a good job of introducing the reader to the world of gambling for a living. They make it clear just which games can be beaten and which can't (see below) and which may be beaten depending on circumstances (e.g., progressive slots and video poker). The authors also give a brief sketch of casino games that cannot be beaten.

1. The book you are holding, written by David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth, has had far-reaching effects on the poker world. Simply put, since the original edition of this book, hold 'em has become, on average, a much tougher game to beat. If you have aspirations of being a serious player you will.
2. 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.
3. (Once again, for a more thorough analysis of pot odds and implied odds see The Theory of Poker by David Sklansky.) From Hold'em Poker for Advanced Players 21st Century Edition, by David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth. ©1988, 1994, 1999 by David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth, Pages 80-83.

For each hand, Sklansky and Chubukov have calculated the maximum stack size which allows you to move all-in profitably with your hand. Below is the table for all hands. The table shows the maximum {tooltip}effective stack{end-text}The effective stack is the smaller of the stack sizes between you and your opponent.{end-tooltip} for a profitable push from the small blind against the big blind if all players have folded to you.

The Sklansky Chubukov Rankings (in big blinds)

You can shove all-in profitably:

• If you are in the small blind,
• everyone before you has folded,
• your effective stack (in big blinds) is smaller than the number given in this table,
• even if your cards are exposed,
• even if the big blind only calls when he has a better hand.

Download this chart as PDF

How to use the Sklansky Chubukov Rankings

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This table above is simply based on Chip-EV. No tournament specifics, no ICM is considered. In addition, it only can be used in the event that no player has called or raised yet and you are sitting in the small blind. Also possible antes are not considered.

This table is therefore more theoretical than practical in nature. However the table shows an interesting fact:

If you are unsure in a situation whether to play a hand or fold, you can simply check this table to see if it would not be profitable to simply go all-in.

Many inexperienced players for example would simply fold a hand like K♠ 4♥ from the small blind with effective stacks of 11 big blinds. But a look at this table shows that it would be profitable to push the hand, even if the opponent knew what we were holding.

The Sklansky Chubukov rankings can help you to develop an idea which hands are good enough to merit an all-in instead of folding. Playing too tight in situations with small stacks is a mistake many new poker players (and Phil Hellmuth) make consistently. Don’t fold hands where even in the worst case scenario (where your opponent magically knows your hole cards) moving all-in is the better play.

Sklansky Chubukov rankings from the button

The Sklansky Chubukov rankings can also be used from the button. The rough approximation is as follows:

Sklansky Chubukov button rule

You can go all-in profitably from the button even if your cards are exposed if your stack is smaller than half the Sklansky Chubukov ranking for the hand you are holding.

Limitations of the Sklansky Chubukov rankings

• Theoretical in nature: The Sklansky Chubukov rankings are only theoretical in nature because of the unusual scenario. They’re mostly there to take away your fear of seemingly too wild all-ins.
• Don’t move all-in willy-nilly: On a real poker table (hopefully) hardly anyone will come up with the idea of pushing all-in with a hand like A♥ K♥ with 50 big blind stacks. Yes it is profitable, but there are much more profitable ways to play this hand. The rankings only show that a push is more profitable than a fold. A smaller raise might still be the best option.
• The rankings are too tight: In most realistic cases the Sklansky Chubukov rankings are much too tight. Your opponent simply doesn’t know your hand and will fold many better hands. In situations with shallow stacks it is usually advisable to push much looser than indicated in the table above. If, for example, you hold 8♠6♠, your opponent will (hopefully) not call with 9♥3♠ although it would actually be correct against your own hand. The rankings state you can move all-in profitably with 4.5 big blinds or less with 86s. But in reality you can move all-in with much bigger stacks because your opponent will fold many hands that have you dominated.

Relevant Resources

• Equilibrium pushbot charts
• Pushbot trainer
  
• More about David Sklansky (TwoPlusTwo.com)

Categorised in: News

In the poker game of Texas hold 'em, a starting hand consists of two hole cards, which belong solely to the player and remain hidden from the other players. Five community cards are also dealt into play. Betting begins before any of the community cards are exposed, and continues throughout the hand. The player's 'playing hand', which will be compared against that of each competing player, is the best 5-card poker hand available from his two hole cards and the five community cards. Unless otherwise specified, here the term hand applies to the player's two hole cards, or starting hand.

Essentials[edit]

There are 1326 distinct possible combinations of two hole cards from a standard 52-card deck in hold 'em, but since suits have no relative value in this poker variant, many of these hands are identical in value before the flop. For example, A♥J♥ and A♠J♠ are identical in value, because each is a hand consisting of an ace and a jack of the same suit.

Therefore, there are 169 non-equivalent starting hands in hold 'em, which is the sum total of : 13 pocket pairs, 13 × 12 / 2 = 78 suited hands and 78 unsuited hands (13 + 78 + 78 = 169).

These 169 hands are not equally likely. Hold 'em hands are sometimes classified as having one of three 'shapes':

• Pairs, (or 'pocket pairs'), which consist of two cards of the same rank (e.g. 9♠9♣). One hand in 17 will be a pair, each occurring with individual probability 1/221 (P(pair) = 3/51 = 1/17).

Alternative means of making this calculation

First Step

As confirmed above.

There are 1326 possible combination of opening hand.

Second Step

There are 6 different combos of each pair. 9h9c, 9h9s, 9h9d, 9c9s, 9c9d, 9d9s. Therefore, there are 78 possible combinations of pocket pairs (6 multiplied by 13 i.e. 22-AA)

To calculate the odds of being dealt a pair

78 (the number of any particular pair being dealt. As above) divided by 1326 (possible opening hands)

78/1326 = 0.058 or 5.8%

• Suited hands, which contain two cards of the same suit (e.g. A♣6♣). 23.5% of all starting hands are suited.

Probability of first card is 1.0 (any of the 52 cards)Probability of second hand suit matching the first:There are 13 cards per suit, and one is in your hand leaving 12 remaining of the 51 cards remaining in the deck. 12/51=.2353 or 23.5%

• Offsuit hands, which contain two cards of a different suit and rank (e.g. K♠J♥). 70.6% of all hands are offsuit hands

Offsuit pairs = 78Other offsuit hands = 936

It is typical to abbreviate suited hands in hold 'em by affixing an 's' to the hand, as well as to abbreviate non-suited hands with an 'o' (for offsuit). That is,

QQ represents any pair of queens,

KQ represents any king and queen,

AKo represents any ace and king of different suits, and

JTs represents any jack and ten of the same suit.

Limit hand rankings[edit]

Some notable theorists and players have created systems to rank the value of starting hands in limit Texas hold'em. These rankings do not apply to no limit play.

Sklansky hand groups[edit]

Sklansky Malmuth Hand Groups

David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth^[1] assigned in 1999 each hand to a group, and proposed all hands in the group could normally be played similarly. Stronger starting hands are identified by a lower number. Hands without a number are the weakest starting hands. As a general rule, books on Texas hold'em present hand strengths starting with the assumption of a nine or ten person table. The table below illustrates the concept:

Chen formula[edit]

The 'Chen Formula' is a way to compute the 'power ratings' of starting hands that was originally developed by Bill Chen.^[2]

Highest Card

Based on the highest card, assign points as follows:

Ace = 10 points, K = 8 points, Q = 7 points, J = 6 points.

10 through 2, half of face value (10 = 5 points, 9 = 4.5 points, etc.)

Pairs

For pairs, multiply the points by 2 (AA=20, KK=16, etc.), with a minimum of 5 points for any pair. 55 is given an extra point (i.e., 6).

Suited

Add 2 points for suited cards.

Closeness

Subtract 1 point for 1 gappers (AQ, J9)

2 points for 2 gappers (J8, AJ).

4 points for 3 gappers (J7, 73).

5 points for larger gappers, including A2 A3 A4

Add an extra point if connected or 1-gap and your highest card is lower than Q (since you then can make all higher straights)

Phil Hellmuth's: 'Play Poker Like the Pros'[edit]

Phil Hellmuth's 'Play Poker Like the Pros' book published in 2003.

Statistics based on real online play[edit]

Statistics based on real play with their associated actual value in real bets.^[3]

Nicknames for starting hands[edit]

In poker communities, it is common for hole cards to be given nicknames. While most combinations have a nickname, stronger handed nicknames are generally more recognized, the most notable probably being the 'Big Slick' - Ace and King of the same suit, although an Ace-King of any suit combination is less occasionally referred to as an Anna Kournikova, derived from the initials AK and because it 'looks really good but rarely wins.'^[4][5] Hands can be named according to their shapes (e.g., paired aces look like 'rockets', paired jacks look like 'fish hooks'); a historic event (e.g., A's and 8's - dead man's hand, representing the hand held by Wild Bill Hickok when he was fatally shot in the back by Jack McCall in 1876); many other reasons like animal names, alliteration and rhyming are also used in nicknames.

Sklansky And Malmuth Starting Hands

Notes[edit]

1. ^David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth (1999). Hold 'em Poker for Advanced Players. Two Plus Two Publications. ISBN1-880685-22-1
2. ^Hold'em Excellence: From Beginner to Winner by Lou Krieger, Chapter 5, pages 39 - 43, Second Edition
3. ^http://www.pokerroom.com/poker/poker-school/ev-stats/total-stats-by-card/^{[dead link]}
4. ^Aspden, Peter (2007-05-19). 'FT Weekend Magazine - Non-fiction: Stakes and chips Las Vegas and the internet have helped poker become the biggest game in town'. Financial Times. Retrieved 2010-01-10.
5. ^Martain, Tim (2007-07-15). 'A little luck helps out'. Sunday Tasmanian. Retrieved 2010-01-10.

Sklansky Malmuth