55
48.91%
Wins 48.36%, ties 1.10%
98s
51.09%
Wins 50.54%, ties 1.10%
55 against 98s: the numbers
| Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 55 | 48.359 | 1.096 | 50.545 | 48.907 |
| 98s | 50.545 | 1.096 | 48.359 | 51.093 |
55, a pocket pair, plays 98s, 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. Split pots make up 1.10% of the boards, and both equity figures count them as half a win each.
For context, 55 sits at number 27 of 169 starting hands and 98s at number 83 when each is run against a random hand.
| Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about |
|---|---|---|---|
| 55 | 19,873,000 | 450,000 | 20,772,000 |
| 98s | 20,772,000 | 450,000 | 19,873,000 |
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 | 0.957 | 2.068 | 1.978 | 1.045 |
| 98s | 1.045 | 1.978 | 2.068 | 0.957 |
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
Break the boards down by their first three cards and 98s is strongest on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) (53.75%) and weakest on paired flops (46.27%). 98s is the favorite overall but falls behind on paired flops.
| Flop | Share of flops | 55 wins | Ties | 98s wins | 55 equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.844 | 49.177 | 0.653 | 50.170 | 49.504 |
| Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.065 | 45.985 | 0.529 | 53.486 | 46.249 |
| Two-tone | 46.545 | 46.759 | 0.603 | 52.638 | 47.061 |
| Monotone | 5.212 | 47.540 | 2.845 | 49.615 | 48.962 |
| Paired | 17.334 | 52.372 | 2.722 | 44.906 | 53.733 |
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
Relative to a random opponent, 55 changes by -11.42 points (baseline 60.33%) and 98s by +0.29 points (baseline 50.80%).
| Case | Equity here | Against a random hand | Change in points | Times the random-hand equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 55, all flops | 48.907 | 60.325 | -11.418 | 0.81073 |
| 55, rainbow, ten or higher | 49.504 | 60.325 | -10.821 | 0.82062 |
| 55, rainbow, nine or lower | 46.249 | 60.325 | -14.076 | 0.76666 |
| 55, two-tone | 47.061 | 60.325 | -13.264 | 0.78012 |
| 55, monotone | 48.962 | 60.325 | -11.363 | 0.81164 |
| 55, paired | 53.733 | 60.325 | -6.592 | 0.89073 |
| 98s, all flops | 51.093 | 50.801 | +0.292 | 1.00575 |
| 98s, rainbow, ten or higher | 50.496 | 50.801 | -0.305 | 0.99400 |
| 98s, rainbow, nine or lower | 53.751 | 50.801 | +2.950 | 1.05807 |
| 98s, two-tone | 52.939 | 50.801 | +2.138 | 1.04209 |
| 98s, monotone | 51.038 | 50.801 | +0.237 | 1.00467 |
| 98s, paired | 46.267 | 50.801 | -4.534 | 0.91075 |
Does a shared suit matter?
Split by suits, the deals give 98s 50.97% when the hands overlap in a suit and 51.22% when they do not. 98s does better with no shared suit, by 0.25 points.
| Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | 55 wins | Ties | 98s wins | 55 equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Share a suit | 12 | 50.00 | 48.462 | 1.136 | 50.402 | 49.030 |
| No shared suit | 12 | 50.00 | 48.255 | 1.057 | 50.688 | 48.783 |
How often this matchup comes up
Exactly 24 specific deals fit this matchup in one seat order, which is 0.0015% of 1,624,350; both orders together give 48, or 0.0030%.
A worked example
Worked example: both players commit $100, so $200 sits in the middle. Over every board, 98s' average share is $102.18 (a gain of $2.18) and 55's is $97.82 (a loss of $2.18).
Think in thousands: about 505 of 1,000 go to 98s, about 484 go to 55, and about 11 are chopped.
The same matchup from the other side
98s versus 55 is this same page seen from the other hand: 51.09% for 98s, 48.91% for 55.
Keep exploring
Open the calculator with 5s5h against 9d8d 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
The figures are counted, not estimated: 1,712,304 boards for every suit pattern of the 24 specific deals, with both seven-card hands compared each time. Equity gives half a win for a tie. For the flop rows, a board is counted once under each of the ten flops inside it.
Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used.
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