--- title: "66 vs 87s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/66-vs-87s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/66-vs-87s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "66 vs 87s is close to a coin flip before the flop: 50.81% to 49.19% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/66-vs-86s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/66-vs-76s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-87s.md"] --- # 66 vs 87s: preflop equity 66 vs 87s is close to a coin flip before the flop: 50.81% to 49.19% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Averaged over every possible board, 66 is ahead of 87s by 1.62 points of equity, 50.81% to 49.19%. ## 66 against 87s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for 66 against 87s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 66 | 50.314 | 0.986 | 48.700 | 50.807 | | 87s | 48.700 | 0.986 | 50.314 | 49.193 | One side is a pocket pair, the other is a suited hand. A pair against two higher cards is the classic race: the pair is usually a small favorite or close to even, and each overcard that pairs is a way to take the lead. With only 1.62 points between them, the board decides this matchup far more than the cards in hand. Of every 100 boards, about 0.99 are split pots, and the equity figures already include them. Among the 169 starting hands, 66 is number 17 and 87s is number 100 by strength against a random hand. **Boards behind the percentages: 41,095,296 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 66 | 20,677,000 | 405,000 | 20,013,000 | | 87s | 20,013,000 | 405,000 | 20,677,000 | 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. **66 against 87s 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 | 1.033 | 1.988 | 2.053 | 0.968 | | 87s | 0.968 | 2.053 | 1.988 | 1.033 | 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 Paired flops are the best for 66 (56.73%); low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) are the worst (44.83%). 66 is the favorite overall but falls behind on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower), two-tone flops and monotone flops. **66 against 87s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | 66 wins | Ties | 87s wins | 66 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.844 | 51.658 | 0.611 | 47.731 | 51.963 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.065 | 44.673 | 0.306 | 55.021 | 44.826 | | Two-tone | 46.545 | 48.436 | 0.534 | 51.030 | 48.703 | | Monotone | 5.212 | 48.642 | 2.679 | 48.679 | 49.981 | | Paired | 17.334 | 55.505 | 2.451 | 42.044 | 56.730 | 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 A random hand would give 66 63.29% and 87s 47.94%. Against each other the change is -12.48 points for 66 and +1.25 for 87s. **66 and 87s 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 | 50.807 | 63.285 | -12.478 | 0.80283 | | 66, rainbow, ten or higher | 51.963 | 63.285 | -11.322 | 0.82110 | | 66, rainbow, nine or lower | 44.826 | 63.285 | -18.459 | 0.70832 | | 66, two-tone | 48.703 | 63.285 | -14.582 | 0.76958 | | 66, monotone | 49.981 | 63.285 | -13.304 | 0.78978 | | 66, paired | 56.730 | 63.285 | -6.555 | 0.89642 | | 87s, all flops | 49.193 | 47.936 | +1.257 | 1.02622 | | 87s, rainbow, ten or higher | 48.037 | 47.936 | +0.101 | 1.00211 | | 87s, rainbow, nine or lower | 55.174 | 47.936 | +7.238 | 1.15099 | | 87s, two-tone | 51.297 | 47.936 | +3.361 | 1.07011 | | 87s, monotone | 50.019 | 47.936 | +2.083 | 1.04345 | | 87s, paired | 43.270 | 47.936 | -4.666 | 0.90266 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Two kinds of deal exist here. In 12 of them the hands share a suit and 66 holds 50.90%. In 12 they do not, and it holds 50.71%. The two rows differ by only 0.19 points, so suits barely change this matchup. **66 against 87s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | 66 wins | Ties | 87s wins | 66 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 12 | 50.00 | 50.389 | 1.025 | 48.586 | 50.901 | | No shared suit | 12 | 50.00 | 50.239 | 0.948 | 48.813 | 50.713 | ## How often this matchup comes up The class pair covers 24 combinations of specific cards in a fixed seat order, 0.0015% of 1,624,350, and 48 (0.0030%) in either order. ## A worked example Put $100 each into a $200 pot and deal every board once: 66 averages $101.62 back, ahead of its $100 by $1.62, while 87s averages $98.38, short of its $100 by $1.62. In 1,000 deals of exactly this matchup, expect about 503 won outright by 66, about 487 won outright by 87s and about 10 split. ## The same matchup from the other side 87s versus 66 is this same page seen from the other hand: 49.19% for 87s, 50.81% for 66. ## Keep exploring The calculator link fills in 6s6h against 8d7d, 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 6s6h against 8d7d in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=6s6h&p2=8d7d) - [66 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/66.md) - [87s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/87s.md) - [66 vs 86s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/66-vs-86s.md) - [66 vs 76s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/66-vs-76s.md) - [A9s vs 87s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-87s.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 66 and one 87s 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 86s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/66-vs-86s.md) - [66 vs 76s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/66-vs-76s.md) - [A9s vs 87s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-87s.md)