--- title: "65s vs 43s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/65s-vs-43s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/65s-vs-43s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "65s is a big favorite over 43s before the flop: 61.56% to 38.44% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/54s-vs-43s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/65s-vs-53s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/75s-vs-43s.md"] --- # 65s vs 43s: preflop equity 65s is a big favorite over 43s before the flop: 61.56% to 38.44% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. In equity, 65s against 43s stands at 61.56% to 38.44%, a gap of 23.12 points. ## 65s against 43s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for 65s against 43s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 65s | 55.947 | 11.229 | 32.824 | 61.562 | | 43s | 32.824 | 11.229 | 55.947 | 38.438 | 65s and 43s are both suited hands. The two hands share no rank, which makes this a pure matchup of card strength, straight chances and flush chances. The lead is steady rather than large, and the flop still has plenty of say in who wins. A split pot comes up on 11.23% of boards, so the wins and the equity differ by half of that. For context, 65s sits at number 128 of 169 starting hands and 43s at number 150 when each is run against a random hand. **Boards behind the percentages: 27,396,864 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 65s | 15,328,000 | 3,076,000 | 8,993,000 | | 43s | 8,993,000 | 3,076,000 | 15,328,000 | 16 specific deals times 1,712,304 boards gives the exact total. The won, tied and lost counts are approximations from the five-decimal percentages, rounded to the nearest thousand. **65s against 43s read as odds** | Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 65s | 1.602 | 1.787 | 3.047 | 0.624 | | 43s | 0.624 | 3.047 | 1.787 | 1.602 | In the last column, a pot-to-call ratio at or above the figure makes a call break even or better at this equity. ## Who is ahead on which flops Across the five flop textures 65s' equity moves by 8.92 points, from 58.81% on paired flops to 67.73% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower). 65s stays ahead on all five textures. **65s against 43s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | 65s wins | Ties | 43s wins | 65s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.844 | 55.916 | 11.805 | 32.279 | 61.818 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.065 | 66.981 | 1.504 | 31.515 | 67.733 | | Two-tone | 46.727 | 57.517 | 8.802 | 33.681 | 61.918 | | Monotone | 5.273 | 55.465 | 9.344 | 35.191 | 60.137 | | Paired | 17.091 | 48.583 | 20.458 | 30.959 | 58.812 | 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 Compared with a random opponent, this matchup shifts 65s from 43.13% by +18.43 points and 43s from 38.64% by -0.20 points. **65s and 43s 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 65s, all flops | 61.562 | 43.133 | +18.429 | 1.42726 | | 65s, rainbow, ten or higher | 61.818 | 43.133 | +18.685 | 1.43320 | | 65s, rainbow, nine or lower | 67.733 | 43.133 | +24.600 | 1.57033 | | 65s, two-tone | 61.918 | 43.133 | +18.785 | 1.43551 | | 65s, monotone | 60.137 | 43.133 | +17.004 | 1.39422 | | 65s, paired | 58.812 | 43.133 | +15.679 | 1.36350 | | 43s, all flops | 38.438 | 38.642 | -0.204 | 0.99472 | | 43s, rainbow, ten or higher | 38.182 | 38.642 | -0.460 | 0.98810 | | 43s, rainbow, nine or lower | 32.267 | 38.642 | -6.375 | 0.83502 | | 43s, two-tone | 38.082 | 38.642 | -0.560 | 0.98551 | | 43s, monotone | 39.863 | 38.642 | +1.221 | 1.03160 | | 43s, paired | 41.188 | 38.642 | +2.546 | 1.06589 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Suit overlap shows up in the numbers. With a suit in common 65s has 63.94% equity, and with none in common it has 60.77%. 65s does better with a shared suit, by 3.17 points. **65s against 43s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | 65s wins | Ties | 43s wins | 65s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 4 | 25.00 | 57.901 | 12.081 | 30.018 | 63.941 | | No shared suit | 12 | 75.00 | 55.296 | 10.945 | 33.759 | 60.769 | ## How often this matchup comes up The class pair covers 16 combinations of specific cards in a fixed seat order, 0.0010% of 1,624,350, and 32 (0.0020%) in either order. ## A worked example Try it with money: two players each put in $100 and the whole board runs out every possible way. 65s averages $123.12 from the $200, up $23.12; 43s averages $76.88, down $23.12. Out of 1,000 deals you should see around 560 outright wins for 65s, 328 for 43s, and 112 split pots. ## The same matchup from the other side 43s against 65s adds nothing new: it is 38.44% for 43s and 61.56% for 65s, the same figures reversed. ## Keep exploring The calculator link fills in 6s5s against 4h3h, 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 6s5s against 4h3h in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=6s5s&p2=4h3h) - [65s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/65s.md) - [43s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/43s.md) - [54s vs 43s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/54s-vs-43s.md) - [65s vs 53s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/65s-vs-53s.md) - [75s vs 43s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/75s-vs-43s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed Nothing here is simulated. The 16 deals of 65s against 43s fall into a few suit patterns, each dealt against all 1,712,304 boards, with both best five-card hands compared on every board. Ties give each hand half a win, and the flop rows count a board under each of its ten flops. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [54s vs 43s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/54s-vs-43s.md) - [65s vs 53s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/65s-vs-53s.md) - [75s vs 43s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/75s-vs-43s.md)