55
49.28%
Wins 48.88%, ties 0.81%
J9s
50.72%
Wins 50.31%, ties 0.81%
55 against J9s: the numbers
| Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 55 | 48.876 | 0.812 | 50.312 | 49.282 |
| J9s | 50.312 | 0.812 | 48.876 | 50.718 |
55 and J9s are a pocket pair and a suited hand, in that order. One hand holds a pair and the other holds two cards that both outrank it, which keeps the equity closer than most people expect.
With only 1.44 points between them, the board decides this matchup far more than the cards in hand. About 0.81% of boards chop the pot, which is why equity sits slightly above the win figure for both hands.
Place 27 of 169 belongs to 55 and place 55 belongs to J9s in the ranking against a random hand.
| Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about |
|---|---|---|---|
| 55 | 20,086,000 | 334,000 | 20,676,000 |
| J9s | 20,676,000 | 334,000 | 20,086,000 |
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 | 0.972 | 2.046 | 1.988 | 1.029 |
| J9s | 1.029 | 1.988 | 2.046 | 0.972 |
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
The flop changes the picture. J9s does best on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better, at 52.76%, and worst on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower), at 40.09%. The overall edge for J9s hides low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) and paired flops, where 55 comes out in front.
| Flop | Share of flops | 55 wins | Ties | J9s wins | 55 equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.220 | 47.014 | 0.445 | 52.541 | 47.236 |
| Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.689 | 59.598 | 0.617 | 39.785 | 59.907 |
| Two-tone | 46.545 | 47.375 | 0.454 | 52.171 | 47.602 |
| Monotone | 5.212 | 48.047 | 2.728 | 49.225 | 49.411 |
| Paired | 17.334 | 52.346 | 1.796 | 45.858 | 53.244 |
Rainbow flops have three suits, two-tone flops repeat one suit, monotone flops are all one suit, and paired flops repeat a rank.
Compared with a random hand
The table below sets each hand against its own random-hand baseline: a change of -11.05 points for 55, from 60.33%, and -4.94 for J9s, from 55.66%.
| Case | Equity here | Against a random hand | Change in points | Times the random-hand equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 55, all flops | 49.282 | 60.325 | -11.043 | 0.81694 |
| 55, rainbow, ten or higher | 47.236 | 60.325 | -13.089 | 0.78303 |
| 55, rainbow, nine or lower | 59.907 | 60.325 | -0.418 | 0.99307 |
| 55, two-tone | 47.602 | 60.325 | -12.723 | 0.78909 |
| 55, monotone | 49.411 | 60.325 | -10.914 | 0.81908 |
| 55, paired | 53.244 | 60.325 | -7.081 | 0.88262 |
| J9s, all flops | 50.718 | 55.662 | -4.944 | 0.91118 |
| J9s, rainbow, ten or higher | 52.764 | 55.662 | -2.898 | 0.94794 |
| J9s, rainbow, nine or lower | 40.093 | 55.662 | -15.569 | 0.72029 |
| J9s, two-tone | 52.398 | 55.662 | -3.264 | 0.94136 |
| J9s, monotone | 50.589 | 55.662 | -5.073 | 0.90886 |
| J9s, paired | 46.756 | 55.662 | -8.906 | 0.84000 |
Does a shared suit matter?
The suit split reads 50.57% for J9s with a shared suit and 50.87% without one. J9s does better with no shared suit, by 0.30 points.
| Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | 55 wins | Ties | J9s wins | 55 equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Share a suit | 12 | 50.00 | 49.003 | 0.853 | 50.144 | 49.429 |
| No shared suit | 12 | 50.00 | 48.749 | 0.771 | 50.480 | 49.135 |
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
Say each player puts $100 in before the flop, making a $200 pot. On average J9s takes back $101.44 of it, which is $1.44 more than it put in, and 55 takes back $98.56, $1.44 less than it put in.
A thousand deals look like this: J9s takes 503, 55 takes 489, 8 are ties.
The same matchup from the other side
Read it from the other side: J9s against 55 is the same matchup with the numbers swapped, so J9s holds 50.72% and 55 holds 49.28%. That address sends you back to this page.
Keep exploring
The calculator link fills in 5s5h against Jd9d, 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.
How this was computed
This is an exact count with no sampling. For the 24 ways to deal one 55 and one J9s 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.
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