Aspects of the invention include tracking dependencies between instructions in an issue queue. The tracking includes, for each instruction in the issue queue, identifying whether the instruction is dependent on each of a threshold number of instructions added to the issue queue prior to the instruction. The tracking also includes identifying whether the instruction is dependent on one or more other instructions added to the issue queue prior to the instruction that are not included in the each of a threshold number of instructions. A dependency between the instruction and the other instructions is tracked as a single group by indicating that a dependency exists between the instruction and the group of other instructions based on identifying a dependency between the instruction and at least one of the other instructions in the single group. Instructions are issued from the issue queue based at least in part on the tracking.