--- title: "87s vs 53s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/87s-vs-53s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/87s-vs-53s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "87s is a big favorite over 53s before the flop: 63.75% to 36.25% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/87s-vs-43s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/86s-vs-53s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/87s-vs-64s.md"] --- # 87s vs 53s: preflop equity 87s is a big favorite over 53s before the flop: 63.75% to 36.25% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Dealt all in against each other, 87s takes 63.75% of the pot on average and 53s takes the other 36.25%. ## 87s against 53s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for 87s against 53s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 87s | 61.620 | 4.268 | 34.112 | 63.754 | | 53s | 34.112 | 4.268 | 61.620 | 36.246 | 87s and 53s are both suited hands. With no overlap in ranks, every card that pairs one hand is a card that does not pair the other. A 27.50 point lead is real, and 53s still takes about 341 of every 1,000 deals outright. Ties are 4.27% of the outcomes here; each tied board gives both hands half the pot. Place 100 of 169 belongs to 87s and place 146 belongs to 53s in the ranking against a random hand. **Boards behind the percentages: 27,396,864 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 87s | 16,882,000 | 1,169,000 | 9,346,000 | | 53s | 9,346,000 | 1,169,000 | 16,882,000 | The board total is exact, 16 deals at 1,712,304 boards each. Won, tied and lost counts are rounded to the nearest thousand from the five-decimal percentages. **87s against 53s read as odds** | Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 87s | 1.759 | 1.623 | 2.932 | 0.569 | | 53s | 0.569 | 2.932 | 1.623 | 1.759 | 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 Split by what the flop looks like, 87s peaks at 65.28% on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better and bottoms out at 61.34% on monotone flops. 87s stays ahead on all five textures. **87s against 53s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | 87s wins | Ties | 53s wins | 87s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.844 | 63.475 | 3.608 | 32.917 | 65.279 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.065 | 62.147 | 0.616 | 37.237 | 62.455 | | Two-tone | 46.727 | 62.320 | 2.764 | 34.916 | 63.702 | | Monotone | 5.273 | 58.755 | 5.178 | 36.067 | 61.344 | | Paired | 17.091 | 57.632 | 10.178 | 32.190 | 62.721 | 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 A random hand would give 87s 47.94% and 53s 39.69%. Against each other the change is +15.81 points for 87s and -3.44 for 53s. **87s and 53s 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 87s, all flops | 63.754 | 47.936 | +15.818 | 1.32998 | | 87s, rainbow, ten or higher | 65.279 | 47.936 | +17.343 | 1.36179 | | 87s, rainbow, nine or lower | 62.455 | 47.936 | +14.519 | 1.30288 | | 87s, two-tone | 63.702 | 47.936 | +15.766 | 1.32890 | | 87s, monotone | 61.344 | 47.936 | +13.408 | 1.27971 | | 87s, paired | 62.721 | 47.936 | +14.785 | 1.30843 | | 53s, all flops | 36.246 | 39.693 | -3.447 | 0.91316 | | 53s, rainbow, ten or higher | 34.721 | 39.693 | -4.972 | 0.87474 | | 53s, rainbow, nine or lower | 37.545 | 39.693 | -2.148 | 0.94588 | | 53s, two-tone | 36.298 | 39.693 | -3.395 | 0.91447 | | 53s, monotone | 38.656 | 39.693 | -1.037 | 0.97387 | | 53s, paired | 37.279 | 39.693 | -2.414 | 0.93918 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Suit overlap shows up in the numbers. With a suit in common 87s has 66.22% equity, and with none in common it has 62.93%. 87s does better with a shared suit, by 3.29 points. **87s against 53s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | 87s wins | Ties | 53s wins | 87s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 4 | 25.00 | 63.927 | 4.586 | 31.487 | 66.220 | | No shared suit | 12 | 75.00 | 60.852 | 4.162 | 34.986 | 62.933 | ## How often this matchup comes up Exactly 16 specific deals fit this matchup in one seat order, which is 0.0010% of 1,624,350; both orders together give 32, or 0.0020%. ## A worked example Try it with money: two players each put in $100 and the whole board runs out every possible way. 87s averages $127.50 from the $200, up $27.50; 53s averages $72.50, down $27.50. Run 1,000 deals and the tally comes out near 616 for 87s, 341 for 53s and 43 ties. ## The same matchup from the other side The mirror image, 53s against 87s, is 36.25% to 63.75%, and its address redirects to this page. ## Keep exploring Try 8s7s against 5h3h 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 8s7s against 5h3h in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=8s7s&p2=5h3h) - [87s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/87s.md) - [53s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/53s.md) - [87s vs 43s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/87s-vs-43s.md) - [86s vs 53s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/86s-vs-53s.md) - [87s vs 64s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/87s-vs-64s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed Method: exact enumeration. The 16 specific deals are grouped by suit pattern, each is run against all 1,712,304 boards, and both seven-card hands are scored. Equity adds half of every tie, and flop textures are tallied over the ten flops inside each board. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [87s vs 43s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/87s-vs-43s.md) - [86s vs 53s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/86s-vs-53s.md) - [87s vs 64s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/87s-vs-64s.md)