--- title: "44 vs 97s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/44-vs-97s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/44-vs-97s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "44 vs 97s is close to a coin flip before the flop: 48.63% to 51.37% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/44-vs-87s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/44-vs-86s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/j9s-vs-97s.md"] --- # 44 vs 97s: preflop equity 44 vs 97s is close to a coin flip before the flop: 48.63% to 51.37% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Before any board card is dealt, 97s holds 51.37% equity against 44, which leaves 44 with 48.63%. ## 44 against 97s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for 44 against 97s, in percent** | 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. **Boards behind the percentages: 41,095,296 counted in all** | 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. **44 against 97s 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 | 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. **44 against 97s by flop texture, in percent** | 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. **44 and 97s 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 | 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. **44 against 97s by suit overlap, in percent** | 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. - [Open 4s4h against 9d7d in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=4s4h&p2=9d7d) - [44 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/44.md) - [97s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/97s.md) - [44 vs 87s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/44-vs-87s.md) - [44 vs 86s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/44-vs-86s.md) - [J9s vs 97s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/j9s-vs-97s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## 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. ## Related - [44 vs 87s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/44-vs-87s.md) - [44 vs 86s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/44-vs-86s.md) - [J9s vs 97s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/j9s-vs-97s.md)