55
50.96%
Wins 50.31%, ties 1.30%
86s
49.04%
Wins 48.39%, ties 1.30%
55 against 86s: the numbers
| Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 55 | 50.312 | 1.296 | 48.392 | 50.960 |
| 86s | 48.392 | 1.296 | 50.312 | 49.040 |
The first hand is a pocket pair; the second is a suited hand. 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. The tie share is 1.30%: on those boards the pot is chopped and neither hand wins outright.
The hand ranking puts 55 at 27 and 86s at 110 out of 169 starting hands.
| Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about |
|---|---|---|---|
| 55 | 20,676,000 | 533,000 | 19,887,000 |
| 86s | 19,887,000 | 533,000 | 20,676,000 |
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 55 | 1.039 | 1.988 | 2.066 | 0.962 |
| 86s | 0.962 | 2.066 | 1.988 | 1.039 |
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
Break the boards down by their first three cards and 55 is strongest on paired flops (55.73%) and weakest on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) (44.74%). 55 is the favorite overall but falls behind on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) and two-tone flops.
| Flop | Share of flops | 55 wins | Ties | 86s wins | 55 equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.844 | 52.090 | 0.787 | 47.123 | 52.484 |
| Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.065 | 44.476 | 0.525 | 54.999 | 44.738 |
| Two-tone | 46.545 | 48.738 | 0.706 | 50.556 | 49.091 |
| Monotone | 5.212 | 48.809 | 2.927 | 48.264 | 50.273 |
| Paired | 17.334 | 54.047 | 3.374 | 42.579 | 55.734 |
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
Against one random hand instead, 55 holds 60.33% and 86s holds 46.24%. Facing each other changes that by -9.37 points for 55 and +2.80 points for 86s.
| Case | Equity here | Against a random hand | Change in points | Times the random-hand equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 55, all flops | 50.960 | 60.325 | -9.365 | 0.84476 |
| 55, rainbow, ten or higher | 52.484 | 60.325 | -7.841 | 0.87002 |
| 55, rainbow, nine or lower | 44.738 | 60.325 | -15.587 | 0.74162 |
| 55, two-tone | 49.091 | 60.325 | -11.234 | 0.81378 |
| 55, monotone | 50.273 | 60.325 | -10.052 | 0.83337 |
| 55, paired | 55.734 | 60.325 | -4.591 | 0.92390 |
| 86s, all flops | 49.040 | 46.243 | +2.797 | 1.06048 |
| 86s, rainbow, ten or higher | 47.516 | 46.243 | +1.273 | 1.02753 |
| 86s, rainbow, nine or lower | 55.262 | 46.243 | +9.019 | 1.19503 |
| 86s, two-tone | 50.909 | 46.243 | +4.666 | 1.10090 |
| 86s, monotone | 49.727 | 46.243 | +3.484 | 1.07534 |
| 86s, paired | 44.266 | 46.243 | -1.977 | 0.95725 |
Does a shared suit matter?
Looking only at deals where the hands share a suit, 55 has 51.08%; looking only at deals where they do not, 50.84%. The two rows differ by only 0.24 points, so suits barely change this matchup.
| Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | 55 wins | Ties | 86s wins | 55 equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Share a suit | 12 | 50.00 | 50.410 | 1.333 | 48.257 | 51.077 |
| No shared suit | 12 | 50.00 | 50.215 | 1.258 | 48.527 | 50.844 |
How often this matchup comes up
How often does it happen? 24 of the 1,624,350 ordered deals (0.0015%) are 55 against 86s, and 48 (0.0030%) if either hand may sit in either seat.
A worked example
With $100 from each side, the $200 pot is split on average as $101.92 for 55 and $98.08 for 86s; the first side gains $1.92 per all-in and the second gives up $1.92.
Run 1,000 deals and the tally comes out near 503 for 55, 484 for 86s and 13 ties.
The same matchup from the other side
86s versus 55 is this same page seen from the other hand: 49.04% for 86s, 50.96% for 55.
Keep exploring
Try 5s5h against 8d6d 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
All 1,712,304 five-card boards are dealt for every suit pattern among the 24 specific deals of 55 against 86s, 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.
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