--- title: "55 vs 97s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/55-vs-97s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/55-vs-97s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "55 vs 97s is close to a coin flip before the flop: 50.10% to 49.90% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/55-vs-87s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/55-vs-86s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjs-vs-97s.md"] --- # 55 vs 97s: preflop equity 55 vs 97s is close to a coin flip before the flop: 50.10% to 49.90% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Dealt all in against each other, 55 takes 50.10% of the pot on average and 97s takes the other 49.90%. ## 55 against 97s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for 55 against 97s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 55 | 49.540 | 1.124 | 49.336 | 50.102 | | 97s | 49.336 | 1.124 | 49.540 | 49.898 | The first hand is a pocket pair; the second is a suited hand. This is a pair against two overcards, a matchup that stays close because the other hand only needs one of its ranks to appear. This is close to even money, with 55 a little ahead. A split pot comes up on 1.12% of boards, so the wins and the equity differ by half of that. For context, 55 sits at number 27 of 169 starting hands and 97s at number 94 when each is run 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 | 20,359,000 | 462,000 | 20,275,000 | | 97s | 20,275,000 | 462,000 | 20,359,000 | The total is exact: 24 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 97s 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 | 1.004 | 2.019 | 2.027 | 0.996 | | 97s | 0.996 | 2.027 | 2.019 | 1.004 | The final column gives the least the pot must offer for each unit called for a call to break even at this equity. ## Who is ahead on which flops Across the five flop textures 55's equity moves by 8.23 points, from 46.35% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) to 54.58% on paired flops. 97s is ahead on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower), two-tone flops and monotone flops, even though it trails 55 when every flop is counted. **55 against 97s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | 55 wins | Ties | 97s wins | 55 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.844 | 50.781 | 0.684 | 48.535 | 51.123 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.065 | 46.113 | 0.480 | 53.407 | 46.353 | | Two-tone | 46.545 | 47.998 | 0.618 | 51.384 | 48.307 | | Monotone | 5.212 | 48.391 | 2.856 | 48.753 | 49.819 | | Paired | 17.334 | 53.177 | 2.808 | 44.015 | 54.581 | Flop types: rainbow means three different suits, two-tone means one suit twice, monotone means one suit three times, paired means a repeated rank. ## Compared with a random hand The table below sets each hand against its own random-hand baseline: a change of -10.23 points for 55, from 60.33%, and +0.78 for 97s, from 49.12%. **55 and 97s 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 | 50.102 | 60.325 | -10.223 | 0.83053 | | 55, rainbow, ten or higher | 51.123 | 60.325 | -9.202 | 0.84746 | | 55, rainbow, nine or lower | 46.353 | 60.325 | -13.972 | 0.76839 | | 55, two-tone | 48.307 | 60.325 | -12.018 | 0.80078 | | 55, monotone | 49.819 | 60.325 | -10.506 | 0.82584 | | 55, paired | 54.581 | 60.325 | -5.744 | 0.90478 | | 97s, all flops | 49.898 | 49.118 | +0.780 | 1.01588 | | 97s, rainbow, ten or higher | 48.877 | 49.118 | -0.241 | 0.99509 | | 97s, rainbow, nine or lower | 53.647 | 49.118 | +4.529 | 1.09221 | | 97s, two-tone | 51.693 | 49.118 | +2.575 | 1.05242 | | 97s, monotone | 50.181 | 49.118 | +1.063 | 1.02164 | | 97s, paired | 45.419 | 49.118 | -3.699 | 0.92469 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Two kinds of deal exist here. In 12 of them the hands share a suit and 55 holds 50.23%. In 12 they do not, and it holds 49.97%. 55 does better with a shared suit, by 0.26 points. **55 against 97s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | 55 wins | Ties | 97s wins | 55 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 12 | 50.00 | 49.651 | 1.163 | 49.186 | 50.233 | | No shared suit | 12 | 50.00 | 49.429 | 1.086 | 49.485 | 49.972 | ## How often this matchup comes up Counting specific cards, 55 against 97s appears in 24 of the 1,624,350 ordered heads-up deals (0.0015%), and in 48 when the seats are swapped too (0.0030%). ## A worked example Say each player puts $100 in before the flop, making a $200 pot. On average 55 takes back $100.20 of it, which is $0.20 more than it put in, and 97s takes back $99.80, $0.20 less than it put in. A thousand deals look like this: 55 takes 496, 97s takes 493, 11 are ties. ## The same matchup from the other side The reversed view, 97s against 55, shows 49.90% for 97s and 50.10% for 55. It is the same count, so it redirects here. ## Keep exploring The calculator link fills in 5s5h against 9d7d, a deal where the two hands share no suit. Change any card to test your own hand. The neighboring matchups below swap one of the two hands for one of similar strength. - [Open 5s5h against 9d7d in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=5s5h&p2=9d7d) - [55 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/55.md) - [97s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/97s.md) - [55 vs 87s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/55-vs-87s.md) - [55 vs 86s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/55-vs-86s.md) - [QJs vs 97s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjs-vs-97s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed This is an exact count with no sampling. For the 24 ways to deal one 55 and one 97s without reusing a card, grouped by suit pattern, every one of the 1,712,304 possible boards is dealt and both seven-card hands are compared. A tie counts as half a win in the equity column, and each board is counted once under each of its ten three-card flops. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [55 vs 87s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/55-vs-87s.md) - [55 vs 86s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/55-vs-86s.md) - [QJs vs 97s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjs-vs-97s.md)