55
49.77%
Wins 49.13%, ties 1.27%
87s
50.23%
Wins 49.60%, ties 1.27%
55 against 87s: the numbers
| Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 55 | 49.131 | 1.268 | 49.601 | 49.765 |
| 87s | 49.601 | 1.268 | 49.131 | 50.235 |
We compare a pocket pair with 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.
87s leads by less than 1 points of equity, so the result of any one deal is close to a toss-up. Of every 100 boards, about 1.27 are split pots, and the equity figures already include them.
For context, 55 sits at number 27 of 169 starting hands and 87s at number 100 when each is run against a random hand.
| Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about |
|---|---|---|---|
| 55 | 20,191,000 | 521,000 | 20,384,000 |
| 87s | 20,384,000 | 521,000 | 20,191,000 |
The board total is exact, 24 deals at 1,712,304 boards each. Won, tied and lost counts are rounded to the nearest thousand from the five-decimal percentages.
| Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 55 | 0.991 | 2.035 | 2.016 | 1.009 |
| 87s | 1.009 | 2.016 | 2.035 | 0.991 |
The last column is the break-even price: the pot odds a call needs to offer, as a ratio of pot to call.
Who is ahead on which flops
87s prefers low rainbow flops (nine high or lower), where it holds 55.72%, and likes paired flops least, where it holds 45.12%. On rainbow flops topped by a ten or better and paired flops the numbers flip and 55 is the one ahead.
| Flop | Share of flops | 55 wins | Ties | 87s wins | 55 equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.844 | 50.543 | 0.783 | 48.674 | 50.934 |
| Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.065 | 44.057 | 0.437 | 55.506 | 44.276 |
| Two-tone | 46.545 | 47.500 | 0.690 | 51.810 | 47.845 |
| Monotone | 5.212 | 47.957 | 2.916 | 49.127 | 49.415 |
| Paired | 17.334 | 53.241 | 3.288 | 43.471 | 54.885 |
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
The table below sets each hand against its own random-hand baseline: a change of -10.56 points for 55, from 60.33%, and +2.29 for 87s, from 47.94%.
| Case | Equity here | Against a random hand | Change in points | Times the random-hand equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 55, all flops | 49.765 | 60.325 | -10.560 | 0.82495 |
| 55, rainbow, ten or higher | 50.934 | 60.325 | -9.391 | 0.84433 |
| 55, rainbow, nine or lower | 44.276 | 60.325 | -16.049 | 0.73396 |
| 55, two-tone | 47.845 | 60.325 | -12.480 | 0.79312 |
| 55, monotone | 49.415 | 60.325 | -10.910 | 0.81915 |
| 55, paired | 54.885 | 60.325 | -5.440 | 0.90982 |
| 87s, all flops | 50.235 | 47.936 | +2.299 | 1.04796 |
| 87s, rainbow, ten or higher | 49.066 | 47.936 | +1.130 | 1.02357 |
| 87s, rainbow, nine or lower | 55.724 | 47.936 | +7.788 | 1.16247 |
| 87s, two-tone | 52.155 | 47.936 | +4.219 | 1.08801 |
| 87s, monotone | 50.585 | 47.936 | +2.649 | 1.05526 |
| 87s, paired | 45.115 | 47.936 | -2.821 | 0.94115 |
Does a shared suit matter?
Looking only at deals where the hands share a suit, 87s has 50.13%; looking only at deals where they do not, 50.35%. The two rows differ by only 0.22 points, so suits barely change this matchup.
| Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | 55 wins | Ties | 87s wins | 55 equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Share a suit | 12 | 50.00 | 49.221 | 1.306 | 49.473 | 49.874 |
| No shared suit | 12 | 50.00 | 49.041 | 1.229 | 49.730 | 49.655 |
How often this matchup comes up
This page stands for 24 specific-card matchups (0.0015% of 1,624,350 ordered deals), or 48 once you count the seats both ways (0.0030%).
A worked example
Put $100 each into a $200 pot and deal every board once: 87s averages $100.46 back, ahead of its $100 by $0.46, while 55 averages $99.54, short of its $100 by $0.46.
A thousand deals look like this: 87s takes 496, 55 takes 491, 13 are ties.
The same matchup from the other side
One page covers both views. From 87s' side the equity is 50.23%, and from 55's side it is 49.77%.
Keep exploring
Open the calculator with 5s5h against 8d7d 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.
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.
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