--- title: "66 vs 44: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/66-vs-44.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/66-vs-44" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "66 is a big favorite over 44 before the flop: 81.40% to 18.60% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/66-vs-j9s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/66-vs-jto.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-44.md"] --- # 66 vs 44: preflop equity 66 is a big favorite over 44 before the flop: 81.40% to 18.60% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Averaged over every possible board, 66 is ahead of 44 by 62.80 points of equity, 81.40% to 18.60%. ## 66 against 44: the numbers **Exact preflop results for 66 against 44, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 66 | 80.418 | 1.970 | 17.612 | 81.403 | | 44 | 17.612 | 1.970 | 80.418 | 18.597 | This is a contest between two pocket pairs, 66 and 44. Two pairs against each other is a one-way street: the lower pair needs one of its two remaining cards. That is a heavy lead: 44 needs the board to help it on most runouts and still falls behind far more often than not. Of every 100 boards, about 1.97 are split pots, and the equity figures already include them. In the ranking of all 169 starting hands, 66 is number 17 and 44 is number 48. **Boards behind the percentages: 61,642,944 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 66 | 49,572,000 | 1,214,000 | 10,857,000 | | 44 | 10,857,000 | 1,214,000 | 49,572,000 | The board total is exact, 36 deals at 1,712,304 boards each. Won, tied and lost counts are rounded to the nearest thousand from the five-decimal percentages. **66 against 44 read as odds** | Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 66 | 4.377 | 1.244 | 5.678 | 0.228 | | 44 | 0.228 | 5.678 | 1.244 | 4.377 | 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 Paired flops are the best for 66 (84.46%); low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) are the worst (75.61%). 66 stays ahead on all five textures. **66 against 44 by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | 66 wins | Ties | 44 wins | 66 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.844 | 81.993 | 1.170 | 16.837 | 82.578 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.065 | 75.230 | 0.761 | 24.009 | 75.611 | | Two-tone | 46.363 | 80.274 | 1.086 | 18.640 | 80.817 | | Monotone | 5.152 | 74.642 | 2.834 | 22.524 | 76.059 | | Paired | 17.576 | 81.673 | 5.574 | 12.753 | 84.460 | 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 Relative to a random opponent, 66 changes by +18.11 points (baseline 63.29%) and 44 by -38.42 points (baseline 57.02%). **66 and 44 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 66, all flops | 81.403 | 63.285 | +18.118 | 1.28629 | | 66, rainbow, ten or higher | 82.578 | 63.285 | +19.293 | 1.30486 | | 66, rainbow, nine or lower | 75.611 | 63.285 | +12.326 | 1.19477 | | 66, two-tone | 80.817 | 63.285 | +17.532 | 1.27703 | | 66, monotone | 76.059 | 63.285 | +12.774 | 1.20185 | | 66, paired | 84.460 | 63.285 | +21.175 | 1.33460 | | 44, all flops | 18.597 | 57.023 | -38.426 | 0.32613 | | 44, rainbow, ten or higher | 17.422 | 57.023 | -39.601 | 0.30553 | | 44, rainbow, nine or lower | 24.389 | 57.023 | -32.634 | 0.42770 | | 44, two-tone | 19.183 | 57.023 | -37.840 | 0.33641 | | 44, monotone | 23.941 | 57.023 | -33.082 | 0.41985 | | 44, paired | 15.540 | 57.023 | -41.483 | 0.27252 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Does suit overlap move the numbers? 66 has 81.54% when the hands share a suit and 80.72% when they do not. 66 does better with a shared suit, by 0.82 points. **66 against 44 by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | 66 wins | Ties | 44 wins | 66 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 30 | 83.33 | 80.549 | 1.983 | 17.468 | 81.540 | | No shared suit | 6 | 16.67 | 79.767 | 1.904 | 18.329 | 80.719 | ## How often this matchup comes up Counting specific cards, 66 against 44 appears in 36 of the 1,624,350 ordered heads-up deals (0.0022%), and in 72 when the seats are swapped too (0.0044%). ## A worked example To see what the equity is worth, imagine $100 each in a $200 pot. 66 is worth $162.80 on average (+$62.80); 44 is worth $37.20 (-$62.80). A thousand deals look like this: 66 takes 804, 44 takes 176, 20 are ties. ## The same matchup from the other side The reversed view, 44 against 66, shows 18.60% for 44 and 81.40% for 66. It is the same count, so it redirects here. ## Keep exploring Try 6s6h against 4d4c in the calculator: the hands share no suit, and every card can be changed. The links after it are the closest matchups in the ranking. - [Open 6s6h against 4d4c in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=6s6h&p2=4d4c) - [66 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/66.md) - [44 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/44.md) - [66 vs J9s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/66-vs-j9s.md) - [66 vs JTo](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/66-vs-jto.md) - [A9s vs 44](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-44.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed This is an exact count with no sampling. For the 36 ways to deal one 66 and one 44 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 - [66 vs J9s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/66-vs-j9s.md) - [66 vs JTo: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/66-vs-jto.md) - [A9s vs 44: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-44.md)