--- title: "55 vs 86s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/55-vs-86s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/55-vs-86s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "55 vs 86s is close to a coin flip before the flop: 50.96% to 49.04% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/55-vs-76s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/55-vs-75s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjs-vs-86s.md"] --- # 55 vs 86s: preflop equity 55 vs 86s is close to a coin flip before the flop: 50.96% to 49.04% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Before any board card is dealt, 55 holds 50.96% equity against 86s, which leaves 86s with 49.04%. ## 55 against 86s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for 55 against 86s, in percent** | 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. **Boards behind the percentages: 41,095,296 counted in all** | 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. **55 against 86s 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 | 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. **55 against 86s by flop texture, in percent** | 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. **55 and 86s 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 | 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. **55 against 86s by suit overlap, in percent** | 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. - [Open 5s5h against 8d6d in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=5s5h&p2=8d6d) - [55 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/55.md) - [86s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/86s.md) - [55 vs 76s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/55-vs-76s.md) - [55 vs 75s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/55-vs-75s.md) - [QJs vs 86s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjs-vs-86s.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 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. ## Related - [55 vs 76s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/55-vs-76s.md) - [55 vs 75s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/55-vs-75s.md) - [QJs vs 86s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjs-vs-86s.md)