Sunday 11 March 2012

Learning ReflectionL (HU play) Chubukov - Sklansky Hands Ranking

In my previous posts, I researched on certain important heads-up push/fold ranges that are very important in a Heads-up endgame, namely Sage as well as Nash equilibrium.

There is another important push/fold theory that we can apply in our SnG Heads-up game. It is known as the Chubukov-Sklansky Ranking of hands for heads-up push fold ranges.

Chubukov-Sklansky Push-Fold ranges


  • Based on Sklansky's Fundamental Theorem of Poker: 
    • Every time you play a hand differently from the way you would have played it if you could see all your opponents' cards, they gain; and every time you play your hand the same way you would have played it if you could see all their cards, they lose. Conversely, every time opponents play their hands differently from the way they would have if they could see all your cards, you gain; and every time they play their hands the same way they would have played if they could see all your cards, you lose
  • Now, let say I have K3s with 12bbs effective stack size. Based on Chubukov, can I shove with a +EV expectation?
    • Assuming villain can see our holecard and make a perfect decision. 
    • So, he would call with K3s+ as well as all K4+. 
    • Based on probability, there are 379 possible hands that he will call and 846 hands that he will fold. And based on this range, the probability that I win when I got called is 0.369. 
    • With all these input, I can shove with 14 bb and still be having a +EV expectation!
  • The push-fold ranges of all possible hands are given in this website: http://www2.decf.berkeley.edu/~chubukov/rankings.html

So, what are the things that we learn from this push/fold ranges?

  1. In our heads-up game, normally push/fold game only starts when the effective stack size is about 10-12bb deep. 
  2. When the effective stack size is slightly deeper than 12bb, there are room for min raising, limping and playing post flop (This will be another of my review topic in later weeks).
  3. Thus, when looking at this push/fold ranges, I will be paying attention more to the situation when I have 10bb or less. 
  4. Hence, 
Let x be the effective stack size in terms of big blinds

a) For  9< x <10, I can shove  Q4s, and J9o+

b) For 7 < x < 9, I can shove  J5s+, T9o+

c) For 5 < x < 7, I can shove T5s+ , J5o+

d) For 3 < x < 5, Almost any two cards except for thrash hands like T2o, 92s or worse. 

This is inclusive of all premium hands and pocket pairs. 




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