The book Hold'Em Poker for Advanced Players by Sklansky and Malmuth, introduces eight groups of starting hands for Texas Hold'em. These groups are the basis for a further explanation of strategy but generally represent the strength of the various starting hands. These are called the Sklansky groups.

The groups are presented below from strongest to weakest. Within each group the ordering roughly follows the strengths of the hands. It is important to note that while list may not correlate 100% to statistical analysis it does reflect decades of experience from the authors.