JTs: the 4 combos
There is one jack-ten pairing per suit, and a suited hand counts each suit once, so JTs is 4 combos.
All 4 ways to hold JTs are shown here, one tile each. Counting them is how a range gets its size.
How cards you can see change the count
Every card you can see is a card nobody else can hold. The table shows how many of the 4 combos of JTs are still possible when you hold one card of each rank, and the same count applies when that card is on the board.
| Known card | JTs combos left |
|---|---|
| Ace | 4 |
| King | 4 |
| Queen | 4 |
| Jack | 3 |
| Ten | 3 |
| Nine | 4 |
| Eight | 4 |
| Seven | 4 |
| Six | 4 |
| Five | 4 |
| Four | 4 |
| Three | 4 |
| Two | 4 |
Only two ranks change the count: a jack or a ten leaves 3 combos, 25% fewer. Any card of a different rank leaves all 4 combos in play.
When the board is paired
How does a paired board change the count? For JTs, the rows below show the combos left after the board pairs each rank in turn.
| Board pair | JTs combos left |
|---|---|
| Aces | 4 |
| Kings | 4 |
| Queens | 4 |
| Jacks | 2 |
| Tens | 2 |
| Nines | 4 |
| Eights | 4 |
| Sevens | 4 |
| Sixes | 4 |
| Fives | 4 |
| Fours | 4 |
| Threes | 4 |
| Twos | 4 |
A board pair of jacks or tens leaves 2 combos of JTs; a pair of any other rank leaves all 4.
A worked example
Worked example: your cards are a jack and a two, so 1,225 two-card hands remain for your opponent. Of those, 3 are JTs, a 0.24% chance (about 1 in 408). With two cards that do not touch JTs, it would be 4 combos and 0.33%.
How strong is JTs?
JTs holds rank 45 among the 169 classes, inside the top 60 classes. Against a random hand it has 57.53% equity: wins in full, ties as half, every board counted.
308 combos rank above JTs, and with its own 4 the running total is 312, 23.53% of the 1,326 hands.
JTs against ranges of hands
Take the strongest hands in rank order and ask how JTs does against them. The answers, with live combos as weights: 34.29% against the top 5 percent (60 combos), 36.53% against the top 10 percent (130 combos), 39.09% against the top 20 percent (264 combos), 41.69% against the top 30 percent (386 combos) and 46.42% against the top 50 percent (658 combos).
| Opponent range | Combos in range | JTs equity |
|---|---|---|
| Top 5 percent | 60 | 34.29% |
| Top 10 percent | 130 | 36.53% |
| Top 20 percent | 264 | 39.09% |
| Top 30 percent | 386 | 41.69% |
| Top 50 percent | 658 | 46.42% |
JTs is behind all five of these ranges, even the top 50 percent, so it is the underdog on average against each of them.
Your cards matter to the opponent's range too: with JTs, 115.00 of the 130 top-10-percent combos survive on average. That is 15.00 combos fewer than the 130 an opponent has before you look.
Hands next to JTs
Two quick matchups show where JTs stands among its neighbours. JTs has 45.31% equity against K7s, the hand ranked number 44: it wins 44.97% of boards, ties 0.69% and loses 54.35%. It is the underdog in that matchup. JTs has 45.68% equity against A2s, the hand ranked number 46: it wins 45.42% of boards, ties 0.53% and loses 54.05%. It is the underdog in that matchup.
Next to JTs sits JTo, its offsuit twin: rank 57, 12 combos, 55.25% equity against a random hand. JTo is 3 times as many combos but 2.28 points weaker against a random hand.
Questions about JTs combos
- How many combos of JTs are there?
- 4 combos, which is 0.30% of the 1,326 two-card starting hands, so you are dealt JTs about 1 time in 331.5.
- How many JTs combos are left if I hold a jack?
- 3 combos of JTs remain out of 4. With a two as your other card, an opponent has it about 1 time in 408.
- Is JTs stronger than JTo?
- Yes, by 2.28 points: JTs has 57.53% equity against a random hand and ranks number 45, while JTo has 55.25% and ranks number 57. JTo has 12 combos to JTs's 4.
How this was computed
Counting is done on the deck: 1,326 hands, 169 classes. The rows of each table apply the same rule, delete any combo that uses a card now visible, and report what is left.
For rank and equity, the page reads a table of preflop matchups with all 1,712,304 boards counted per pair of classes. Ties are halves and ranges use live-combo weights.
Source: GeorgeLiPoker's own count of the 52-card deck and its preflop matchup table.