A4s vs 44: preflop equity

Averaged over every possible board, 44 is ahead of A4s by 26.20 points of equity, 63.10% to 36.90%.

A4s

36.90%

Wins 35.77%, ties 2.26%

44

63.10%

Wins 61.97%, ties 2.26%

Equity counts a tie as half a win. Exact over every board.

A4s against 44: the numbers

Exact preflop results for A4s against 44, in percent
HandWinsTiesLosesEquity
A4s35.7692.25561.97636.896
4461.9762.25535.76963.104

We compare a suited hand with a pocket pair. The pair already holds one of the other hand's ranks, and that overlap cuts down the cards the other hand can pair with.

44 is ahead, but A4s is far from dead: it takes 358 of every 1,000 deals outright. The tie share is 2.26%: on those boards the pot is chopped and neither hand wins outright.

The hand ranking puts A4s at 35 and 44 at 48 out of 169 starting hands.

Boards behind the percentages: 20,547,648 counted in all
HandBoards won, aboutBoards tied, aboutBoards lost, about
A4s7,350,000463,00012,735,000
4412,735,000463,0007,350,000

The total is exact: 12 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.

A4s against 44 read as odds
HandEquity as odds (to 1)Wins one deal inLoses one deal inPot odds needed to call (to 1)
A4s0.5852.7961.6141.710
441.7101.6142.7960.585

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

Across the five flop textures 44's equity moves by 16.48 points, from 59.98% on monotone flops to 76.46% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower). 44 stays ahead on all five textures, but the swing between them is large, so how the flop looks matters a great deal.

A4s against 44 by flop texture, in percent
FlopShare of flopsA4s winsTies44 winsA4s equity
Rainbow, ten or higher25.19736.4021.43362.16537.119
Rainbow, nine or lower5.58519.9247.22672.85023.537
Two-tone46.23636.8652.23860.89737.984
Monotone5.15138.2873.47258.24140.023
Paired17.83136.2661.55462.18037.043

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

A random hand would give A4s 59.03% and 44 57.02%. Against each other the change is -22.13 points for A4s and +6.08 for 44.

A4s and 44 here compared with each against a random hand, in percent
CaseEquity hereAgainst a random handChange in pointsTimes the random-hand equity
A4s, all flops36.89659.034-22.1380.62500
A4s, rainbow, ten or higher37.11959.034-21.9150.62877
A4s, rainbow, nine or lower23.53759.034-35.4970.39870
A4s, two-tone37.98459.034-21.0500.64343
A4s, monotone40.02359.034-19.0110.67797
A4s, paired37.04359.034-21.9910.62749
44, all flops63.10457.023+6.0811.10664
44, rainbow, ten or higher62.88157.023+5.8581.10273
44, rainbow, nine or lower76.46357.023+19.4401.34092
44, two-tone62.01657.023+4.9931.08756
44, monotone59.97757.023+2.9541.05180
44, paired62.95757.023+5.9341.10406

Does a shared suit matter?

For this pair the shared-suit row is empty: the two hands cannot both own a card of one suit without reusing a card.

A4s against 44 by suit overlap, in percent
DealsSpecific dealsShare of dealsA4s winsTies44 winsA4s equity
Share a suit00.00not possiblenot possiblenot possiblenot possible
No shared suit12100.0035.7692.25561.97636.896

How often this matchup comes up

You will meet this exact matchup 0.0015% of the time in a random heads-up deal: 24 of 1,624,350, counting either seat order.

A worked example

To see what the equity is worth, imagine $100 each in a $200 pot. 44 is worth $126.20 on average (+$26.20); A4s is worth $73.80 (-$26.20).

Run 1,000 deals and the tally comes out near 620 for 44, 358 for A4s and 22 ties.

The same matchup from the other side

44 against A4s adds nothing new: it is 63.10% for 44 and 36.90% for A4s, the same figures reversed.

The calculator link fills in As4s against 4h4d, 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.

How this was computed

We counted every case. Each suit pattern of the 12 specific A4s against 44 deals meets all 1,712,304 boards, and the better five-card hand wins; a split pot is half a win each. The flop table reads each board under all ten of its three-card flops.

Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used.

Bring your own hands to a session

Review the spots you actually play against these numbers in a Game Assessment, and leave with a one-page written plan.

Book a session