Have you heard the term before? A Sklansky Dollar is not a currency of a lesser-known country. Nor it is a special kind of dollar used in poker. Then, what is it? Let’s look at the example below to find out.
Your Hand: A♥ A♠
Opponent’s Hand: Q♦ Q♣
Your opponent goes all-in with his stack of $50. You call.
The board reads: T♣ 2♥ 9♣ Q♠ 5♥
You lost $50 in real money, but you won $17.5 in Sklansky Dollars.
Are you curious to find out what you won? Then, read on!
What are Sklansky Dollars?
Sklansky Dollar is a concept introduced by an American professional poker player David Sklansky. He is considered as one of the best mathematical poker minds and has authored and co-authored 14 books on poker, blackjack and other gambling theories. He has also won two WSOP bracelets in 1982 and one WSOP bracelet in 1983.
Sklansky Dollar is used to evaluate how much money you could have won effectively at the point of hand based on your equity. They do not have any real value and are used for post-game analysis to see how much money you could have won from the hands you played. The formula to find out the Sklansky Dollars is as follow:
Sklansky Dollars = [ (Final Pot Size) X (Equity) ] – Last Call Amount
Sounds complicated? Let us review the aforementioned hand to simplify the formula.
Your Hand: A♥ A♠
Opponent’s Hand: Q♦ Q♣
Final Pot Size = $100 (Opponent’s All-in $50 + Your Call $50)
Last Call Amount = $50
Equity of Your Hand = 80.86%
You can find the equity of your hand vs your opponent’s hand by using PokerStrategy’s Equilab software. Feed the hands to calculate your equity. So, our equity is 80.86%
Now, let’s calculate:
[ 100 (final pot size) x 0.809 (equity) ] – 50 = 30.9
Sklansky Dollars = $30.9
You may have lost $50 due to bad beat, but statistically, you could have won $30.9.
You would have won 80.86% with A♥ A♠ vs Q♦ Q♣. If you played the hands A♥ A♠ vs Q♦ Q♣ over 100 times, you would have won 80 times. So, it wasn’t a bad call to go all-in.
Sklansky Bucks shows how much money you could have won on an average with A♥ A♠ vs Q♦ Q♣. When you analyse this hand, calling was the right move as it would have been profitable in the long run.
Real Money Vs Sklansky Dollars
Both have contradictory results. You have lost $50 in real money but have won $30.9 in Sklansky Dollars. Real money shows how much money you won or lost at the moment. On the other hand, Sklansky bucks show how much you would have won or lost in the long run.
Benefits of Sklansky Bucks
Although it doesn’t have any real value in terms of money, you can use it in the following ways.
Post-game Analysis
A consistent post-game analysis is essential in improving your game. You can use the concept to see whether you made the right call in the pots entered. You can review your hand in a logical and probabilistic way with Sklansky Dollars. If you win in Sklansky Bucks but lose in real money due to a bad run of cards, you need not lose heart as you have made the right move.
Overcome Bad Beats
Losing the best hand due to bad beats can be really frustrating. Anger takes over logical reasoning, and you may end up making more mistakes. However, with Sklansky Dollars, you can absorb the variance and reassure yourself that you made the right move. The fact that you would have won in the long run gives a logical reassurance. Bad beats will not bother you much as you know that you were winning in Sklansky Bucks.
Conclusion
However weird sounding it may be, it is an important concept that every poker player must know. If you are a beginner who has just learnt how to play poker, you must know all the important concepts in poker. Sklansky Dollars will help you think logically, and you will always end up making the right decisions. It will help you to absorb variance when you know that you have played the hand correctly and could have won money in the long run.
