--- title: "44 vs 22: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/44-vs-22.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/44-vs-22" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "44 is a big favorite over 22 before the flop: 81.06% to 18.94% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/44-vs-97s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/44-vs-87s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/j9s-vs-22.md"] --- # 44 vs 22: preflop equity 44 is a big favorite over 22 before the flop: 81.06% to 18.94% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Counting every board, the equity split is 81.06% for 44 and 18.94% for 22, so 44 leads by 62.12 points. ## 44 against 22: the numbers **Exact preflop results for 44 against 22, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 44 | 79.175 | 3.770 | 17.055 | 81.060 | | 22 | 17.055 | 3.770 | 79.175 | 18.940 | Each side holds one of the pocket pairs: 44 and 22. Both hands are pairs, so the bigger pair is ahead on every board that does not pair a card below it. That is a heavy lead: 22 needs the board to help it on most runouts and still falls behind far more often than not. Split pots make up 3.77% of the boards, and both equity figures count them as half a win each. In the ranking of all 169 starting hands, 44 is number 48 and 22 is number 87. **Boards behind the percentages: 61,642,944 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 44 | 48,806,000 | 2,324,000 | 10,513,000 | | 22 | 10,513,000 | 2,324,000 | 48,806,000 | The board total is exact, 36 deals at 1,712,304 boards each. Won, tied and lost counts are rounded to the nearest thousand from the five-decimal percentages. **44 against 22 read as odds** | Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 44 | 4.280 | 1.263 | 5.863 | 0.234 | | 22 | 0.234 | 5.863 | 1.263 | 4.280 | In the last column, a pot-to-call ratio at or above the figure makes a call break even or better at this equity. ## Who is ahead on which flops Rainbow flops topped by a ten or better are the best for 44 (82.68%); low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) are the worst (75.99%). 44 stays ahead on all five textures. **44 against 22 by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | 44 wins | Ties | 22 wins | 44 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.844 | 81.668 | 2.014 | 16.318 | 82.675 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.065 | 74.981 | 2.009 | 23.010 | 75.986 | | Two-tone | 46.363 | 79.944 | 1.990 | 18.066 | 80.939 | | Monotone | 5.152 | 73.770 | 4.739 | 21.491 | 76.140 | | Paired | 17.576 | 76.274 | 11.273 | 12.453 | 81.910 | 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 How much does the opponent matter? Compared with its random-hand 57.02%, 44 changes by +24.04 points, and 22, from 50.33%, by -31.39. **44 and 22 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 44, all flops | 81.060 | 57.023 | +24.037 | 1.42153 | | 44, rainbow, ten or higher | 82.675 | 57.023 | +25.652 | 1.44985 | | 44, rainbow, nine or lower | 75.986 | 57.023 | +18.963 | 1.33255 | | 44, two-tone | 80.939 | 57.023 | +23.916 | 1.41941 | | 44, monotone | 76.140 | 57.023 | +19.117 | 1.33525 | | 44, paired | 81.910 | 57.023 | +24.887 | 1.43644 | | 22, all flops | 18.940 | 50.334 | -31.394 | 0.37629 | | 22, rainbow, ten or higher | 17.325 | 50.334 | -33.009 | 0.34420 | | 22, rainbow, nine or lower | 24.014 | 50.334 | -26.320 | 0.47709 | | 22, two-tone | 19.061 | 50.334 | -31.273 | 0.37869 | | 22, monotone | 23.860 | 50.334 | -26.474 | 0.47403 | | 22, paired | 18.090 | 50.334 | -32.244 | 0.35940 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Of the deals of this matchup, 30 share a suit (44 at 81.20%) and 6 do not (80.38%). 44 does better with a shared suit, by 0.82 points. **44 against 22 by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | 44 wins | Ties | 22 wins | 44 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 30 | 83.33 | 79.307 | 3.778 | 16.915 | 81.196 | | No shared suit | 6 | 16.67 | 78.516 | 3.733 | 17.751 | 80.383 | ## How often this matchup comes up Counting specific cards, 44 against 22 appears in 36 of the 1,624,350 ordered heads-up deals (0.0022%), and in 72 when the seats are swapped too (0.0044%). ## A worked example Worked example: both players commit $100, so $200 sits in the middle. Over every board, 44's average share is $162.12 (a gain of $62.12) and 22's is $37.88 (a loss of $62.12). Run 1,000 deals and the tally comes out near 792 for 44, 170 for 22 and 38 ties. ## The same matchup from the other side 22 versus 44 is this same page seen from the other hand: 18.94% for 22, 81.06% for 44. ## Keep exploring 4s4h against 2d2c 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 4s4h against 2d2c in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=4s4h&p2=2d2c) - [44 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/44.md) - [22 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/22.md) - [44 vs 97s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/44-vs-97s.md) - [44 vs 87s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/44-vs-87s.md) - [J9s vs 22](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/j9s-vs-22.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed All 1,712,304 five-card boards are dealt for every suit pattern among the 36 specific deals of 44 against 22, and both hands are scored on each. That is a full count, so the percentages are exact. Ties are half a win each, and each board appears once per flop it contains. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [44 vs 97s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/44-vs-97s.md) - [44 vs 87s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/44-vs-87s.md) - [J9s vs 22: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/j9s-vs-22.md)