--- title: "33 vs 87s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/33-vs-87s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/33-vs-87s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "33 vs 87s is close to a coin flip before the flop: 47.04% to 52.97% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/33-vs-86s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/33-vs-76s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/t8s-vs-87s.md"] --- # 33 vs 87s: preflop equity 33 vs 87s is close to a coin flip before the flop: 47.04% to 52.97% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Dealt all in against each other, 87s takes 52.96% of the pot on average and 33 takes the other 47.04%. ## 33 against 87s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for 33 against 87s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 33 | 46.055 | 1.960 | 51.985 | 47.035 | | 87s | 51.985 | 1.960 | 46.055 | 52.965 | The first hand is a pocket pair; the second is a suited hand. This is a pair against two overcards, a matchup that stays close because the other hand only needs one of its ranks to appear. That is a slim edge: neither hand is far ahead. A split pot comes up on 1.96% of boards, so the wins and the equity differ by half of that. 33 ranks number 66 of 169 starting hands, and 87s ranks number 100, by equity against a random hand. **Boards behind the percentages: 41,095,296 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 33 | 18,926,000 | 805,000 | 21,363,000 | | 87s | 21,363,000 | 805,000 | 18,926,000 | 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. **33 against 87s read as odds** | Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 33 | 0.888 | 2.171 | 1.924 | 1.126 | | 87s | 1.126 | 1.924 | 2.171 | 0.888 | The last column is the break-even price: the pot odds a call needs to offer, as a ratio of pot to call. ## Who is ahead on which flops Low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) are the best for 87s (61.78%); paired flops are the worst (49.28%). On paired flops the numbers flip and 33 is the one ahead. **33 against 87s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | 33 wins | Ties | 87s wins | 33 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.844 | 48.432 | 1.139 | 50.429 | 49.001 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.065 | 37.856 | 0.725 | 61.419 | 38.218 | | Two-tone | 46.545 | 44.954 | 1.021 | 54.025 | 45.465 | | Monotone | 5.212 | 45.732 | 3.735 | 50.533 | 47.599 | | Paired | 17.334 | 47.955 | 5.535 | 46.510 | 50.723 | Read the flop types this way: rainbow has three suits, two-tone has two cards of one suit, monotone has three, and paired repeats a rank. ## Compared with a random hand A random hand would give 33 53.69% and 87s 47.94%. Against each other the change is -6.65 points for 33 and +5.02 for 87s. **33 and 87s 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 33, all flops | 47.035 | 53.693 | -6.658 | 0.87600 | | 33, rainbow, ten or higher | 49.001 | 53.693 | -4.692 | 0.91261 | | 33, rainbow, nine or lower | 38.218 | 53.693 | -15.475 | 0.71179 | | 33, two-tone | 45.465 | 53.693 | -8.228 | 0.84676 | | 33, monotone | 47.599 | 53.693 | -6.094 | 0.88650 | | 33, paired | 50.723 | 53.693 | -2.970 | 0.94469 | | 87s, all flops | 52.965 | 47.936 | +5.029 | 1.10491 | | 87s, rainbow, ten or higher | 50.999 | 47.936 | +3.063 | 1.06390 | | 87s, rainbow, nine or lower | 61.782 | 47.936 | +13.846 | 1.28884 | | 87s, two-tone | 54.535 | 47.936 | +6.599 | 1.13766 | | 87s, monotone | 52.401 | 47.936 | +4.465 | 1.09315 | | 87s, paired | 49.277 | 47.936 | +1.341 | 1.02797 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Split by suits, the deals give 87s 52.83% when the hands overlap in a suit and 53.10% when they do not. 87s does better with no shared suit, by 0.27 points. **33 against 87s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | 33 wins | Ties | 87s wins | 33 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 12 | 50.00 | 46.176 | 1.989 | 51.835 | 47.170 | | No shared suit | 12 | 50.00 | 45.933 | 1.932 | 52.135 | 46.899 | ## How often this matchup comes up The class pair covers 24 combinations of specific cards in a fixed seat order, 0.0015% of 1,624,350, and 48 (0.0030%) in either order. ## A worked example Say each player puts $100 in before the flop, making a $200 pot. On average 87s takes back $105.92 of it, which is $5.92 more than it put in, and 33 takes back $94.08, $5.92 less than it put in. In 1,000 deals of exactly this matchup, expect about 520 won outright by 87s, about 460 won outright by 33 and about 20 split. ## The same matchup from the other side If you came looking for 87s against 33, the numbers are the same with the hands swapped: 52.96% and 47.04%. ## Keep exploring 3s3h against 8d7d is a ready-made deal for the calculator, with no suit in common between the hands. The neighboring matchups below replace one hand with another of similar strength. - [Open 3s3h against 8d7d in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=3s3h&p2=8d7d) - [33 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/33.md) - [87s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/87s.md) - [33 vs 86s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/33-vs-86s.md) - [33 vs 76s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/33-vs-76s.md) - [T8s vs 87s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/t8s-vs-87s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed The figures are counted, not estimated: 1,712,304 boards for every suit pattern of the 24 specific deals, with both seven-card hands compared each time. Equity gives half a win for a tie. For the flop rows, a board is counted once under each of the ten flops inside it. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [33 vs 86s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/33-vs-86s.md) - [33 vs 76s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/33-vs-76s.md) - [T8s vs 87s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/t8s-vs-87s.md)