A5s vs 44: preflop equity

The exact count puts 44 at 52.00% and A5s at 48.00% when the two hands see all five board cards.

A5s

48.00%

Wins 47.72%, ties 0.56%

44

52.00%

Wins 51.72%, ties 0.56%

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

A5s against 44: the numbers

Exact preflop results for A5s against 44, in percent
HandWinsTiesLosesEquity
A5s47.7150.56151.72447.996
4451.7240.56147.71552.004

A5s is a suited hand and 44 is a pocket pair. 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.

This is close to even money, with 44 a little ahead. Split pots make up 0.56% of the boards, and both equity figures count them as half a win each.

For context, A5s sits at number 30 of 169 starting hands and 44 at number 48 when each is run against a random hand.

Boards behind the percentages: 41,095,296 counted in all
HandBoards won, aboutBoards tied, aboutBoards lost, about
A5s19,609,000231,00021,256,000
4421,256,000231,00019,609,000

24 specific deals times 1,712,304 boards gives the exact total. The won, tied and lost counts are approximations from the five-decimal percentages, rounded to the nearest thousand.

A5s against 44 read as odds
HandEquity as odds (to 1)Wins one deal inLoses one deal inPot odds needed to call (to 1)
A5s0.9232.0961.9331.084
441.0841.9332.0960.923

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

Split by what the flop looks like, 44 peaks at 58.56% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) and bottoms out at 50.75% on two-tone flops. 44 stays ahead on all five textures.

A5s against 44 by flop texture, in percent
FlopShare of flopsA5s winsTies44 winsA5s equity
Rainbow, ten or higher25.22048.0190.29151.69048.164
Rainbow, nine or lower5.68940.9670.95358.08041.444
Two-tone46.54549.0590.37950.56249.249
Monotone5.21247.2472.85649.89748.675
Paired17.33446.0210.62553.35446.334

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

The table below sets each hand against its own random-hand baseline: a change of -11.92 points for A5s, from 59.92%, and -5.02 for 44, from 57.02%.

A5s and 44 here compared with each against a random hand, in percent
CaseEquity hereAgainst a random handChange in pointsTimes the random-hand equity
A5s, all flops47.99659.923-11.9270.80096
A5s, rainbow, ten or higher48.16459.923-11.7590.80376
A5s, rainbow, nine or lower41.44459.923-18.4790.69162
A5s, two-tone49.24959.923-10.6740.82187
A5s, monotone48.67559.923-11.2480.81229
A5s, paired46.33459.923-13.5890.77323
44, all flops52.00457.023-5.0190.91198
44, rainbow, ten or higher51.83657.023-5.1870.90904
44, rainbow, nine or lower58.55657.023+1.5331.02688
44, two-tone50.75157.023-6.2720.89001
44, monotone51.32557.023-5.6980.90008
44, paired53.66657.023-3.3570.94113

Does a shared suit matter?

Looking only at deals where the hands share a suit, 44 has 52.16%; looking only at deals where they do not, 51.85%. 44 does better with a shared suit, by 0.31 points.

A5s against 44 by suit overlap, in percent
DealsSpecific dealsShare of dealsA5s winsTies44 winsA5s equity
Share a suit1250.0047.5470.59651.85747.845
No shared suit1250.0047.8840.52651.59048.147

How often this matchup comes up

Counting specific cards, A5s against 44 appears in 24 of the 1,624,350 ordered heads-up deals (0.0015%), and in 48 when the seats are swapped too (0.0030%).

A worked example

Try it with money: two players each put in $100 and the whole board runs out every possible way. 44 averages $104.00 from the $200, up $4.00; A5s averages $96.00, down $4.00.

In 1,000 deals of exactly this matchup, expect about 517 won outright by 44, about 477 won outright by A5s and about 6 split.

The same matchup from the other side

One page covers both views. From 44's side the equity is 52.00%, and from A5s' side it is 48.00%.

The calculator link fills in As5s 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

All 1,712,304 five-card boards are dealt for every suit pattern among the 24 specific deals of A5s against 44, and both hands are scored on each. That is a full count, so the percentages are exact. Ties are half a win each, and each board appears once per flop it contains.

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

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