Poker Starting Hands Chart

The Poker Starting Hands Chart scores a short list of preflop holdings against a table size. Hand is a select: AA, AKs, AQs, KQs, QQ, JJ, TT, AKo, default AKs. Players is 2–10, default 6. Strength starts from an internal map — AA 100, QQ 88, JJ 84, AKs 82, TT 80, AQs 78, AKo 74, KQs 72 — then subtracts 2.5 points for every opponent beyond heads-up, clamped to [5, 100]. Tier is Premium if strength > 85, Strong if > 75, otherwise Playable.

Defaults: AKs, 6 players. Extra opponents = 4, penalty = 10. Strength = 82 − 10 = 72.00%, Tier = Playable (72 is not greater than 75). That shocks people who treat AKs as always premium. At six-handed the chart is telling you AKs is strong-but-not-tier-one under this crude scale, because four other ranges are in the pot in the worst case. Switch Players to 2: penalty 0, strength 82.00%, Tier = Strong. Switch Hand to AA, Players 6: 100 − 10 = 90.00%, Premium. QQ at 6: 88 − 10 = 78.00%, Strong. AKo at 6: 74 − 10 = 64.00%, Playable.

The map is not a solver output. GTO charts from PioSOLVER or GTO Wizard would give frequencies, not a 0–100 index, and they would split by position (UTG versus button) which this form does not have. Sklansky–Malmuth starting-hand groups (Holdem Poker, and later Hold’em Poker for Advanced Players) put AA in group 1, AKs in group 1, AKo in group 2, KQs in group 2, TT in group 3 or so depending on the edition. This tool collapses that tradition into one number plus a three-word tier.

Use it to see the direction of the multiway penalty, not to decide a shove. Ten-handed AKs: 82 − 8×2.5 = 82 − 20 = 62, still Playable on this scale. Ten-handed AA: 80, Strong, not Premium, which is the map admitting that a ten-way pot taxes even aces — a qualitative truth, a quantitative sketch. If your hand is not in the select, the engine falls back to 65 before the penalty, a catch-all that the UI cannot actually send.

Read 72.00% as an index, not a win probability. Heads-up AKs versus a random hand is about 65% equity; six-way the raw equity collapses. This page never computes showdown equity. It ranks.

Preflop hand rankings are the oldest popularization of Hold’em skill after the rules themselves. David Sklansky’s grouping of 169 hands (13 ranks × 13 ranks, suited/offsuit/pair) taught a generation to fold KTo under the gun and to treat AA as a raise. Mason Malmuth’s co-authorship locked the groups into a table that still appears in clubrooms. The 2000s added PokerStove equities; the 2010s added solvers. A modern GTO chart is a forest of frequencies by position, stack depth, and action. SorteCalc’s chart is a deliberately crude descendant of the Sklansky–Malmuth instinct: a handful of headline hands, a table-size penalty, three tiers.

Why only eight hands? Because the search demand is for AA, AK, QQ, and the suited Broadway pairs, not for 72o. The internal map’s spacing (AA 100, QQ 88, JJ 84, AKs 82, TT 80, AQs 78, AKo 74, KQs 72) is a teaching order, not a Nash ranking. Solvers often mix AKo and AQs in ways this index cannot represent. Suitedness is worth more in multiway pots than the 8-point AKs–AKo gap might suggest; the 2.5-per-extra-player tax is a blunt instrument aimed at “more opponents, play tighter,” the Sklansky slogan.

The Players field is table size, not number of callers. Six players means five opponents still to act or already in, depending on how you mentally seat yourself; the formula only sees n − 2 extra seats. Position is omitted, which is the largest scientific gap. UTG AKs ten-handed is a different object from button AKs six-handed. If you need that distinction, use a solver table, not this index.

Limits: no stacks, no antes, no straddle, no ICM, no rake. Tournament push/fold charts (Nash 2000s, later ICMizer) are a different math. Cash-game GTO is another. This page will not tell you to 3-bet or fold. It will tell you that under a toy ranking, six-handed AKs scores 72 Playable and six-handed AA scores 90 Premium. That gap is the whole lesson: pairs at the top of the map keep Premium longer than suited Broadway as the table fills.

Treat it as a laminated club card from 1999 with a linear multiway haircut, implemented so the haircut is visible.

A lecture on how to score a starting hand against table size is a ranking, not a solver. Ace-king suited sits at 82 on an internal map; six players means four extra opponents beyond heads-up; the penalty is 2.5 points per extra opponent, so 4 × 2.5 = 10; strength equals 82 − 10 = 72. Tiers: Premium if strength exceeds 85, Strong if it exceeds 75, otherwise Playable. Seventy-two is Playable. That shocks people who treat ace-king suited as always premium. At six-handed the chart is telling you the holding is strong-but-not-tier-one under this crude scale, because four other ranges can be in the pot.

The map itself is a teaching order. Pair of aces 100, pair of queens 88, pair of jacks 84, ace-king suited 82, pair of tens 80, ace-queen suited 78, ace-king offsuit 74, king-queen suited 72. Pair of aces at six players: 100 − 10 = 90, Premium. Pair of queens at six: 88 − 10 = 78, Strong. Ace-king suited heads-up: 82, Strong. Ace-king suited ten-handed: 82 − 20 = 62, still Playable. Pair of aces ten-handed: 80, Strong, not Premium — the map admitting that a ten-way pot taxes even aces. Ace-king offsuit at six: 74 − 10 = 64, Playable. A clamp at 5 and 100 stops the index from leaving the interval; the form’s maximum of 10 players keeps pair of aces at 80.

David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth grouped 169 holdings into ordinal buckets in Hold’em Poker and Hold’em Poker for Advanced Players. Pair of aces and ace-king suited sit in group 1; ace-king offsuit and king-queen suited in group 2; pair of tens around group 3 depending on the edition. This page cardinalizes that tradition into one number plus a three-word tier. It is not a frequency table from a modern solver. Solvers split by position, stack, and action; this form has no seat. The 2.5 coefficient is a design mnemonic, not a fit to equilibrium frequencies. “More opponents, play tighter” is the Sklansky slogan the tax expresses.

Win probabilities against several random hands would be a different function. Pair of aces versus five random remains a favourite; ace-king suited versus five random is far weaker. The index only rhymes with that fact. Heads-up ace-king suited versus a random hand is about 65 percent equity; this page never computes showdown equity. It ranks. Position omitted is the largest scientific gap: under-the-gun ace-king ten-handed is not button ace-king six-handed. Stacks, antes, straddles, and tournament independent-chip-model pressures are absent.

Assumptions: heads-up base map, linear multiway tax, three hard tiers, no stacks, no antes. The 72.00 percent default is 82 minus 4 times 2.5, arithmetic you can do on a napkin, which is the design goal. Treat it as a laminated club card from 1999 with a visible haircut, not as a Nash ranking. Eight headline hands are the whole catalogue on purpose: search demand is for aces, ace-king, and Broadway pairs, not for seven-deuce offsuit.