44
48.63%
Wins 47.93%, ties 1.40%
97s
51.37%
Wins 50.67%, ties 1.40%
44 against 97s: the numbers
| Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 44 | 47.926 | 1.400 | 50.674 | 48.626 |
| 97s | 50.674 | 1.400 | 47.926 | 51.374 |
Here a pocket pair (44) meets a suited hand (97s). One hand holds a pair and the other holds two cards that both outrank it, which keeps the equity closer than most people expect.
That is a slim edge: neither hand is far ahead. Ties are part of the picture: 1.40% of boards end in a split pot, and each side counts that as half a win.
The hand ranking puts 44 at 48 and 97s at 94 out of 169 starting hands.
| Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about |
|---|---|---|---|
| 44 | 19,695,000 | 575,000 | 20,825,000 |
| 97s | 20,825,000 | 575,000 | 19,695,000 |
Exact total: 24 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.
| Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 44 | 0.947 | 2.087 | 1.973 | 1.057 |
| 97s | 1.057 | 1.973 | 2.087 | 0.947 |
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
Low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) are the best for 97s (57.50%); paired flops are the worst (47.56%). 44 is ahead on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better and paired flops, even though it trails 97s when every flop is counted.
| Flop | Share of flops | 44 wins | Ties | 97s wins | 44 equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.844 | 49.746 | 0.826 | 49.428 | 50.159 |
| Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.065 | 42.203 | 0.599 | 57.198 | 42.502 |
| Two-tone | 46.545 | 46.618 | 0.751 | 52.631 | 46.993 |
| Monotone | 5.212 | 47.275 | 3.169 | 49.556 | 48.859 |
| Paired | 17.334 | 50.593 | 3.699 | 45.708 | 52.443 |
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
Compared with a random opponent, this matchup shifts 44 from 57.02% by -8.39 points and 97s from 49.12% by +2.25 points.
| Case | Equity here | Against a random hand | Change in points | Times the random-hand equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 44, all flops | 48.626 | 57.023 | -8.397 | 0.85274 |
| 44, rainbow, ten or higher | 50.159 | 57.023 | -6.864 | 0.87963 |
| 44, rainbow, nine or lower | 42.502 | 57.023 | -14.521 | 0.74535 |
| 44, two-tone | 46.993 | 57.023 | -10.030 | 0.82411 |
| 44, monotone | 48.859 | 57.023 | -8.164 | 0.85683 |
| 44, paired | 52.443 | 57.023 | -4.580 | 0.91968 |
| 97s, all flops | 51.374 | 49.118 | +2.256 | 1.04593 |
| 97s, rainbow, ten or higher | 49.841 | 49.118 | +0.723 | 1.01472 |
| 97s, rainbow, nine or lower | 57.498 | 49.118 | +8.380 | 1.17061 |
| 97s, two-tone | 53.007 | 49.118 | +3.889 | 1.07918 |
| 97s, monotone | 51.141 | 49.118 | +2.023 | 1.04119 |
| 97s, paired | 47.557 | 49.118 | -1.561 | 0.96822 |
Does a shared suit matter?
When the hands share a suit, 97s holds 51.23%; when they do not, it holds 51.52%. 97s does better with no shared suit, by 0.29 points.
| Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | 44 wins | Ties | 97s wins | 44 equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Share a suit | 12 | 50.00 | 48.051 | 1.435 | 50.514 | 48.769 |
| No shared suit | 12 | 50.00 | 47.800 | 1.365 | 50.835 | 48.483 |
How often this matchup comes up
Out of 1,624,350 ways to deal two seats two cards each, 24 are 44 in one seat and 97s in the other (0.0015%); with the seats swapped too, 48 (0.0030%).
A worked example
With $100 from each side, the $200 pot is split on average as $102.74 for 97s and $97.26 for 44; the first side gains $2.74 per all-in and the second gives up $2.74.
Out of 1,000 deals you should see around 507 outright wins for 97s, 479 for 44, and 14 split pots.
The same matchup from the other side
Read it from the other side: 97s against 44 is the same matchup with the numbers swapped, so 97s holds 51.37% and 44 holds 48.63%. That address sends you back to this page.
Keep exploring
Try 4s4h against 9d7d 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.
How this was computed
Method: exact enumeration. The 24 specific deals are grouped by suit pattern, each is run against all 1,712,304 boards, and both seven-card hands are scored. Equity adds half of every tie, and flop textures are tallied over the ten flops inside each board.
Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used.
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