--- title: "99 vs 55: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/99-vs-55.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/99-vs-55" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "99 is a big favorite over 55 before the flop: 80.84% to 19.16% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/99-vs-qjs.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/99-vs-k9s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-55.md"] --- # 99 vs 55: preflop equity 99 is a big favorite over 55 before the flop: 80.84% to 19.16% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. The exact count puts 99 at 80.84% and 55 at 19.16% when the two hands see all five board cards. ## 99 against 55: the numbers **Exact preflop results for 99 against 55, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 99 | 80.491 | 0.691 | 18.818 | 80.836 | | 55 | 18.818 | 0.691 | 80.491 | 19.164 | This is a contest between two pocket pairs, 99 and 55. A pair against a smaller pair is the classic crush: the smaller pair needs one of its two remaining cards to make a set. A gap this wide means 55 is in trouble before the flop and has few good runouts. A split pot comes up on 0.69% of boards, so the wins and the equity differ by half of that. 99 ranks number 6 of 169 starting hands, and 55 ranks number 27, by equity against a random hand. **Boards behind the percentages: 61,642,944 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 99 | 49,617,000 | 426,000 | 11,600,000 | | 55 | 11,600,000 | 426,000 | 49,617,000 | The total is exact: 36 specific deals times 1,712,304 boards. The three counts are approximate, worked out from the percentages to five decimals and rounded to the nearest thousand. **99 against 55 read as odds** | Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 99 | 4.218 | 1.242 | 5.314 | 0.237 | | 55 | 0.237 | 5.314 | 1.242 | 4.218 | 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 By flop texture, 99's equity runs from 69.93% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) up to 86.05% on paired flops. 99 stays ahead on all five textures, but the swing between them is large, so how the flop looks matters a great deal. **99 against 55 by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | 99 wins | Ties | 55 wins | 99 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.844 | 82.197 | 0.411 | 17.392 | 82.402 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.065 | 69.550 | 0.753 | 29.697 | 69.927 | | Two-tone | 46.363 | 79.561 | 0.454 | 19.985 | 79.788 | | Monotone | 5.152 | 74.349 | 1.972 | 23.679 | 75.335 | | Paired | 17.576 | 85.387 | 1.334 | 13.279 | 86.054 | 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 99 72.06% and 55 60.33%. Against each other the change is +8.78 points for 99 and -41.17 for 55. **99 and 55 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 99, all flops | 80.836 | 72.057 | +8.779 | 1.12183 | | 99, rainbow, ten or higher | 82.402 | 72.057 | +10.345 | 1.14357 | | 99, rainbow, nine or lower | 69.927 | 72.057 | -2.130 | 0.97044 | | 99, two-tone | 79.788 | 72.057 | +7.731 | 1.10729 | | 99, monotone | 75.335 | 72.057 | +3.278 | 1.04549 | | 99, paired | 86.054 | 72.057 | +13.997 | 1.19425 | | 55, all flops | 19.164 | 60.325 | -41.161 | 0.31768 | | 55, rainbow, ten or higher | 17.598 | 60.325 | -42.727 | 0.29172 | | 55, rainbow, nine or lower | 30.073 | 60.325 | -30.252 | 0.49852 | | 55, two-tone | 20.212 | 60.325 | -40.113 | 0.33505 | | 55, monotone | 24.665 | 60.325 | -35.660 | 0.40887 | | 55, paired | 13.946 | 60.325 | -46.379 | 0.23118 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Looking only at deals where the hands share a suit, 99 has 80.97%; looking only at deals where they do not, 80.17%. 99 does better with a shared suit, by 0.80 points. **99 against 55 by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | 99 wins | Ties | 55 wins | 99 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 30 | 83.33 | 80.616 | 0.706 | 18.678 | 80.969 | | No shared suit | 6 | 16.67 | 79.863 | 0.617 | 19.520 | 80.171 | ## How often this matchup comes up Exactly 36 specific deals fit this matchup in one seat order, which is 0.0022% of 1,624,350; both orders together give 72, or 0.0044%. ## A worked example Try it with money: two players each put in $100 and the whole board runs out every possible way. 99 averages $161.68 from the $200, up $61.68; 55 averages $38.32, down $61.68. In 1,000 deals of exactly this matchup, expect about 805 won outright by 99, about 188 won outright by 55 and about 7 split. ## The same matchup from the other side 55 versus 99 is this same page seen from the other hand: 19.16% for 55, 80.84% for 99. ## Keep exploring Try 9s9h against 5d5c 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 9s9h against 5d5c in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=9s9h&p2=5d5c) - [99 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/99.md) - [55 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/55.md) - [99 vs QJs](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/99-vs-qjs.md) - [99 vs K9s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/99-vs-k9s.md) - [88 vs 55](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-55.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed Nothing here is simulated. The 36 deals of 99 against 55 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 - [99 vs QJs: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/99-vs-qjs.md) - [99 vs K9s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/99-vs-k9s.md) - [88 vs 55: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-55.md)