--- title: "22 vs 43s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/22-vs-43s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/22-vs-43s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "22 vs 43s is close to a coin flip before the flop: 50.27% to 49.73% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/97s-vs-43s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/22-vs-53s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/98s-vs-43s.md"] --- # 22 vs 43s: preflop equity 22 vs 43s is close to a coin flip before the flop: 50.27% to 49.73% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Before any board card is dealt, 22 holds 50.27% equity against 43s, which leaves 43s with 49.73%. ## 22 against 43s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for 22 against 43s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 22 | 48.329 | 3.874 | 47.797 | 50.266 | | 43s | 47.797 | 3.874 | 48.329 | 49.734 | 22 is a pocket pair and 43s is a suited hand. A pair against two higher cards is the classic race: the pair is usually a small favorite or close to even, and each overcard that pairs is a way to take the lead. 22 leads by less than 1 points of equity, so the result of any one deal is close to a toss-up. Ties are 3.87% of the outcomes here; each tied board gives both hands half the pot. The hand ranking puts 22 at 87 and 43s at 150 out of 169 starting hands. **Boards behind the percentages: 41,095,296 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 22 | 19,861,000 | 1,592,000 | 19,642,000 | | 43s | 19,642,000 | 1,592,000 | 19,861,000 | 24 specific deals times 1,712,304 boards gives the exact total. The won, tied and lost counts are approximations from the five-decimal percentages, rounded to the nearest thousand. **22 against 43s read as odds** | Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 22 | 1.011 | 2.069 | 2.092 | 0.989 | | 43s | 0.989 | 2.092 | 2.069 | 1.011 | The last column is the smallest pot odds, written as a pot-to-call ratio, at which a call breaks even with this equity. ## Who is ahead on which flops 22 prefers paired flops, where it holds 54.32%, and likes low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) least, where it holds 40.55%. 43s takes over on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower), two-tone flops and monotone flops, so the favorite before the flop is the underdog on those boards. **22 against 43s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | 22 wins | Ties | 43s wins | 22 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.844 | 51.626 | 2.081 | 46.293 | 52.666 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.065 | 39.444 | 2.202 | 58.354 | 40.545 | | Two-tone | 46.545 | 47.576 | 1.992 | 50.432 | 48.572 | | Monotone | 5.212 | 46.799 | 5.293 | 47.908 | 49.446 | | Paired | 17.334 | 48.491 | 11.665 | 39.844 | 54.323 | Rainbow flops have three suits, two-tone flops repeat one suit, monotone flops are all one suit, and paired flops repeat a rank. ## Compared with a random hand Each hand has a baseline against a random hand: 50.33% for 22, 38.64% for 43s. Here the change is -0.06 and +11.09 points. **22 and 43s here compared with each against a random hand, in percent** | Case | Equity here | Against a random hand | Change in points | Times the random-hand equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 22, all flops | 50.266 | 50.334 | -0.068 | 0.99865 | | 22, rainbow, ten or higher | 52.666 | 50.334 | +2.332 | 1.04633 | | 22, rainbow, nine or lower | 40.545 | 50.334 | -9.789 | 0.80552 | | 22, two-tone | 48.572 | 50.334 | -1.762 | 0.96499 | | 22, monotone | 49.446 | 50.334 | -0.888 | 0.98236 | | 22, paired | 54.323 | 50.334 | +3.989 | 1.07925 | | 43s, all flops | 49.734 | 38.642 | +11.092 | 1.28705 | | 43s, rainbow, ten or higher | 47.334 | 38.642 | +8.692 | 1.22494 | | 43s, rainbow, nine or lower | 59.455 | 38.642 | +20.813 | 1.53861 | | 43s, two-tone | 51.428 | 38.642 | +12.786 | 1.33088 | | 43s, monotone | 50.554 | 38.642 | +11.912 | 1.30827 | | 43s, paired | 45.677 | 38.642 | +7.035 | 1.18206 | ## Does a shared suit matter? The suit split reads 50.40% for 22 with a shared suit and 50.13% without one. 22 does better with a shared suit, by 0.27 points. **22 against 43s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | 22 wins | Ties | 43s wins | 22 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 12 | 50.00 | 48.451 | 3.893 | 47.656 | 50.397 | | No shared suit | 12 | 50.00 | 48.207 | 3.855 | 47.938 | 50.134 | ## How often this matchup comes up Counting specific cards, 22 against 43s appears in 24 of the 1,624,350 ordered heads-up deals (0.0015%), and in 48 when the seats are swapped too (0.0030%). ## A worked example With $100 from each side, the $200 pot is split on average as $100.54 for 22 and $99.46 for 43s; the first side gains $0.54 per all-in and the second gives up $0.54. A thousand deals look like this: 22 takes 483, 43s takes 478, 39 are ties. ## The same matchup from the other side Swap the hands and you get 43s with 49.73% against 22 with 50.27%. We keep one page per matchup, with the better-ranked hand first. ## Keep exploring Try 2s2h against 4d3d in the calculator: the hands share no suit, and every card can be changed. The links after it are the closest matchups in the ranking. - [Open 2s2h against 4d3d in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=2s2h&p2=4d3d) - [22 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/22.md) - [43s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/43s.md) - [97s vs 43s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/97s-vs-43s.md) - [22 vs 53s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/22-vs-53s.md) - [98s vs 43s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/98s-vs-43s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed The page is built from a full enumeration: 1,712,304 boards, every suit pattern of the 24 specific deals, both seven-card hands evaluated. A tie is worth half a win to each hand, and a board is tallied under each of its ten possible flops for the texture rows. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [97s vs 43s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/97s-vs-43s.md) - [22 vs 53s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/22-vs-53s.md) - [98s vs 43s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/98s-vs-43s.md)