--- title: "44 vs 54s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/44-vs-54s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/44-vs-54s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "44 is a big favorite over 54s before the flop: 60.00% to 40.00% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/44-vs-64s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/44-vs-53s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/j9s-vs-54s.md"] --- # 44 vs 54s: preflop equity 44 is a big favorite over 54s before the flop: 60.00% to 40.00% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Before any board card is dealt, 44 holds 60.00% equity against 54s, which leaves 54s with 40.00%. ## 44 against 54s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for 44 against 54s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 44 | 57.872 | 4.259 | 37.869 | 60.002 | | 54s | 37.869 | 4.259 | 57.872 | 39.998 | The matchup pits a pocket pair against a suited hand. The non-pair hand shares a rank with the pair, so two of its outs for pairing are blocked by the pair itself. That is a modest edge, the kind that shows up over many hands and is easy to miss in one. Ties are part of the picture: 4.26% of boards end in a split pot, and each side counts that as half a win. The hand ranking puts 44 at 48 and 54s at 136 out of 169 starting hands. **Boards behind the percentages: 20,547,648 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 44 | 11,891,000 | 875,000 | 7,781,000 | | 54s | 7,781,000 | 875,000 | 11,891,000 | Exact total: 12 deals times 1,712,304 boards. The other three counts come from the five-decimal percentages and are rounded to the nearest thousand, so read them as approximate. **44 against 54s 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 | 1.500 | 1.728 | 2.641 | 0.667 | | 54s | 0.667 | 2.641 | 1.728 | 1.500 | The final column gives the least the pot must offer for each unit called for a call to break even at this equity. ## Who is ahead on which flops 44 prefers paired flops, where it holds 64.08%, and likes low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) least, where it holds 45.52%. 54s is ahead on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower), even though it trails 44 when every flop is counted. **44 against 54s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | 44 wins | Ties | 54s wins | 44 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.786 | 62.582 | 2.629 | 34.789 | 63.897 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 4.995 | 42.180 | 6.677 | 51.143 | 45.518 | | Two-tone | 46.236 | 56.550 | 3.076 | 40.374 | 58.088 | | Monotone | 5.152 | 55.409 | 4.396 | 40.195 | 57.607 | | Paired | 17.831 | 59.598 | 8.966 | 31.436 | 64.081 | 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 The table below sets each hand against its own random-hand baseline: a change of +2.98 points for 44, from 57.02%, and -1.45 for 54s, from 41.45%. **44 and 54s 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 | 60.002 | 57.023 | +2.979 | 1.05224 | | 44, rainbow, ten or higher | 63.897 | 57.023 | +6.874 | 1.12055 | | 44, rainbow, nine or lower | 45.518 | 57.023 | -11.505 | 0.79824 | | 44, two-tone | 58.088 | 57.023 | +1.065 | 1.01868 | | 44, monotone | 57.607 | 57.023 | +0.584 | 1.01024 | | 44, paired | 64.081 | 57.023 | +7.058 | 1.12377 | | 54s, all flops | 39.998 | 41.453 | -1.455 | 0.96490 | | 54s, rainbow, ten or higher | 36.103 | 41.453 | -5.350 | 0.87094 | | 54s, rainbow, nine or lower | 54.482 | 41.453 | +13.029 | 1.31431 | | 54s, two-tone | 41.912 | 41.453 | +0.459 | 1.01107 | | 54s, monotone | 42.393 | 41.453 | +0.940 | 1.02268 | | 54s, paired | 35.919 | 41.453 | -5.534 | 0.86650 | ## Does a shared suit matter? The hands cannot hold a suit in common here, which leaves a single case and a single number: 60.00% for 44. **44 against 54s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | 44 wins | Ties | 54s wins | 44 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 0 | 0.00 | not possible | not possible | not possible | not possible | | No shared suit | 12 | 100.00 | 57.872 | 4.259 | 37.869 | 60.002 | ## How often this matchup comes up The class pair covers 12 combinations of specific cards in a fixed seat order, 0.0007% of 1,624,350, and 24 (0.0015%) in either order. ## A worked example Put $100 each into a $200 pot and deal every board once: 44 averages $120.00 back, ahead of its $100 by $20.00, while 54s averages $80.00, short of its $100 by $20.00. A thousand deals look like this: 44 takes 579, 54s takes 379, 42 are ties. ## The same matchup from the other side If you came looking for 54s against 44, the numbers are the same with the hands swapped: 40.00% and 60.00%. ## Keep exploring Try 4s4h against 5d4d 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 4s4h against 5d4d in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=4s4h&p2=5d4d) - [44 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/44.md) - [54s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/54s.md) - [44 vs 64s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/44-vs-64s.md) - [44 vs 53s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/44-vs-53s.md) - [J9s vs 54s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/j9s-vs-54s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed We counted every case. Each suit pattern of the 12 specific 44 against 54s deals meets all 1,712,304 boards, and the better five-card hand wins; a split pot is half a win each. The flop table reads each board under all ten of its three-card flops. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [44 vs 64s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/44-vs-64s.md) - [44 vs 53s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/44-vs-53s.md) - [J9s vs 54s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/j9s-vs-54s.md)