--- title: "55 vs 44: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/55-vs-44.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/55-vs-44" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "55 is a big favorite over 44 before the flop: 81.48% to 18.52% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/55-vs-j9s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/55-vs-jto.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjs-vs-44.md"] --- # 55 vs 44: preflop equity 55 is a big favorite over 44 before the flop: 81.48% to 18.52% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Averaged over every possible board, 55 is ahead of 44 by 62.96 points of equity, 81.48% to 18.52%. ## 55 against 44: the numbers **Exact preflop results for 55 against 44, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 55 | 80.105 | 2.744 | 17.151 | 81.477 | | 44 | 17.151 | 2.744 | 80.105 | 18.523 | Two pocket pairs meet here: 55 against 44. Both hands are pairs, so the bigger pair is ahead on every board that does not pair a card below it. A gap this wide means 44 is in trouble before the flop and has few good runouts. 2.74% of boards are ties, so the equity of each hand is its win rate plus half of that. In the ranking of all 169 starting hands, 55 is number 27 and 44 is number 48. **Boards behind the percentages: 61,642,944 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 55 | 49,379,000 | 1,691,000 | 10,572,000 | | 44 | 10,572,000 | 1,691,000 | 49,379,000 | The total is exact: 36 specific deals times 1,712,304 boards. The three counts are approximate, worked out from the percentages to five decimals and rounded to the nearest thousand. **55 against 44 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 | 4.399 | 1.248 | 5.831 | 0.227 | | 44 | 0.227 | 5.831 | 1.248 | 4.399 | 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 55 prefers paired flops, where it holds 83.36%, and likes low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) least, where it holds 76.17%. 55 stays ahead on all five textures. **55 against 44 by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | 55 wins | Ties | 44 wins | 55 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.844 | 82.099 | 1.575 | 16.326 | 82.886 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.065 | 75.610 | 1.118 | 23.272 | 76.169 | | Two-tone | 46.363 | 80.405 | 1.481 | 18.114 | 81.145 | | Monotone | 5.152 | 74.498 | 3.369 | 22.133 | 76.183 | | Paired | 17.576 | 79.319 | 8.079 | 12.602 | 83.358 | A rainbow flop shows three suits, a two-tone flop repeats one suit, a monotone flop is a single suit, and a paired flop repeats a rank. ## Compared with a random hand A random hand would give 55 60.33% and 44 57.02%. Against each other the change is +21.15 points for 55 and -38.50 for 44. **55 and 44 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 | 81.477 | 60.325 | +21.152 | 1.35063 | | 55, rainbow, ten or higher | 82.886 | 60.325 | +22.561 | 1.37399 | | 55, rainbow, nine or lower | 76.169 | 60.325 | +15.844 | 1.26264 | | 55, two-tone | 81.145 | 60.325 | +20.820 | 1.34513 | | 55, monotone | 76.183 | 60.325 | +15.858 | 1.26288 | | 55, paired | 83.358 | 60.325 | +23.033 | 1.38182 | | 44, all flops | 18.523 | 57.023 | -38.500 | 0.32483 | | 44, rainbow, ten or higher | 17.114 | 57.023 | -39.909 | 0.30012 | | 44, rainbow, nine or lower | 23.831 | 57.023 | -33.192 | 0.41792 | | 44, two-tone | 18.855 | 57.023 | -38.168 | 0.33066 | | 44, monotone | 23.817 | 57.023 | -33.206 | 0.41767 | | 44, paired | 16.642 | 57.023 | -40.381 | 0.29185 | ## Does a shared suit matter? The suit split reads 81.62% for 55 with a shared suit and 80.78% without one. 55 does better with a shared suit, by 0.84 points. **55 against 44 by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | 55 wins | Ties | 44 wins | 55 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 30 | 83.33 | 80.237 | 2.757 | 17.006 | 81.615 | | No shared suit | 6 | 16.67 | 79.445 | 2.677 | 17.878 | 80.783 | ## How often this matchup comes up How often does it happen? 36 of the 1,624,350 ordered deals (0.0022%) are 55 against 44, and 72 (0.0044%) if either hand may sit in either seat. ## A worked example Try it with money: two players each put in $100 and the whole board runs out every possible way. 55 averages $162.96 from the $200, up $62.96; 44 averages $37.04, down $62.96. In 1,000 deals of exactly this matchup, expect about 801 won outright by 55, about 172 won outright by 44 and about 27 split. ## The same matchup from the other side The mirror image, 44 against 55, is 18.52% to 81.48%, and its address redirects to this page. ## Keep exploring Open the calculator with 5s5h against 4d4c already entered, a deal with no shared suit, and change any card to try your own hand. The matchups after it each swap one hand for a nearby one in the ranking. - [Open 5s5h against 4d4c in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=5s5h&p2=4d4c) - [55 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/55.md) - [44 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/44.md) - [55 vs J9s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/55-vs-j9s.md) - [55 vs JTo](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/55-vs-jto.md) - [QJs vs 44](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjs-vs-44.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed We counted every case. Each suit pattern of the 36 specific 55 against 44 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 - [55 vs J9s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/55-vs-j9s.md) - [55 vs JTo: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/55-vs-jto.md) - [QJs vs 44: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjs-vs-44.md)