--- title: "55 vs 43s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/55-vs-43s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/55-vs-43s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "55 is a big favorite over 43s before the flop: 83.01% to 16.99% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjs-vs-43s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/55-vs-53s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kjo-vs-43s.md"] --- # 55 vs 43s: preflop equity 55 is a big favorite over 43s before the flop: 83.01% to 16.99% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Dealt all in against each other, 55 takes 83.01% of the pot on average and 43s takes the other 16.99%. ## 55 against 43s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for 55 against 43s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 55 | 81.702 | 2.611 | 15.687 | 83.007 | | 43s | 15.687 | 2.611 | 81.702 | 16.993 | The first hand is a pocket pair; the second is a suited hand. Here a pair faces two cards that are both smaller, so the other hand needs to pair up and still be behind. That is a heavy lead: 43s needs the board to help it on most runouts and still falls behind far more often than not. Of every 100 boards, about 2.61 are split pots, and the equity figures already include them. 55 ranks number 27 of 169 starting hands, and 43s ranks number 150, 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 55 | 33,576,000 | 1,073,000 | 6,447,000 | | 43s | 6,447,000 | 1,073,000 | 33,576,000 | 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. **55 against 43s read as odds** | Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 55 | 4.885 | 1.224 | 6.375 | 0.205 | | 43s | 0.205 | 6.375 | 1.224 | 4.885 | 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 If you know the kind of flop that came, the numbers shift: 55 holds 87.06% on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better and 76.91% on monotone flops. 55 stays ahead on all five textures. **55 against 43s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | 55 wins | Ties | 43s wins | 55 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.844 | 86.294 | 1.525 | 12.181 | 87.057 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.065 | 78.849 | 1.159 | 19.992 | 79.429 | | Two-tone | 46.545 | 81.193 | 1.382 | 17.425 | 81.884 | | Monotone | 5.212 | 75.090 | 3.631 | 21.279 | 76.905 | | Paired | 17.334 | 79.041 | 7.648 | 13.311 | 82.865 | 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 Compared with a random opponent, this matchup shifts 55 from 60.33% by +22.68 points and 43s from 38.64% by -21.65 points. **55 and 43s 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 55, all flops | 83.007 | 60.325 | +22.682 | 1.37600 | | 55, rainbow, ten or higher | 87.057 | 60.325 | +26.732 | 1.44313 | | 55, rainbow, nine or lower | 79.429 | 60.325 | +19.104 | 1.31668 | | 55, two-tone | 81.884 | 60.325 | +21.559 | 1.35738 | | 55, monotone | 76.905 | 60.325 | +16.580 | 1.27484 | | 55, paired | 82.865 | 60.325 | +22.540 | 1.37364 | | 43s, all flops | 16.993 | 38.642 | -21.649 | 0.43975 | | 43s, rainbow, ten or higher | 12.943 | 38.642 | -25.699 | 0.33495 | | 43s, rainbow, nine or lower | 20.571 | 38.642 | -18.071 | 0.53235 | | 43s, two-tone | 18.116 | 38.642 | -20.526 | 0.46882 | | 43s, monotone | 23.095 | 38.642 | -15.547 | 0.59767 | | 43s, paired | 17.135 | 38.642 | -21.507 | 0.44343 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Split by suits, the deals give 55 83.59% when the hands overlap in a suit and 82.43% when they do not. 55 does better with a shared suit, by 1.16 points. **55 against 43s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | 55 wins | Ties | 43s wins | 55 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 12 | 50.00 | 82.263 | 2.647 | 15.090 | 83.587 | | No shared suit | 12 | 50.00 | 81.140 | 2.575 | 16.285 | 82.428 | ## 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 Take a $200 pot built from $100 each. 55's equity of 83.01% is worth $166.02, a $66.02 edge, and 43s' 16.99% is worth $33.98, which is $66.02 under its stake. A thousand deals look like this: 55 takes 817, 43s takes 157, 26 are ties. ## The same matchup from the other side The reversed view, 43s against 55, shows 16.99% for 43s and 83.01% for 55. It is the same count, so it redirects here. ## Keep exploring Try 5s5h against 4d3d 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 5s5h against 4d3d in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=5s5h&p2=4d3d) - [55 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/55.md) - [43s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/43s.md) - [QJs vs 43s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjs-vs-43s.md) - [55 vs 53s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/55-vs-53s.md) - [KJo vs 43s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kjo-vs-43s.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 24 specific deals of 55 against 43s, 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 - [QJs vs 43s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjs-vs-43s.md) - [55 vs 53s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/55-vs-53s.md) - [KJo vs 43s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kjo-vs-43s.md)