--- title: "AJo vs 22: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ajo-vs-22.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ajo-vs-22" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "AJo vs 22 is close to a coin flip before the flop: 48.05% to 51.95% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ajo-vs-97s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ajo-vs-87s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqs-vs-22.md"] --- # AJo vs 22: preflop equity AJo vs 22 is close to a coin flip before the flop: 48.05% to 51.95% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. The exact count puts 22 at 51.95% and AJo at 48.05% when the two hands see all five board cards. ## AJo against 22: the numbers **Exact preflop results for AJo against 22, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AJo | 47.758 | 0.590 | 51.652 | 48.053 | | 22 | 51.652 | 0.590 | 47.758 | 51.947 | AJo and 22 are an offsuit hand and a pocket pair, in that order. One hand holds a pair and the other holds two cards that both outrank it, which keeps the equity closer than most people expect. This is close to even money, with 22 a little ahead. Ties are 0.59% of the outcomes here; each tied board gives both hands half the pot. AJo ranks number 15 of 169 starting hands, and 22 ranks number 87, by equity against a random hand. **Boards behind the percentages: 123,285,888 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AJo | 58,879,000 | 727,000 | 63,680,000 | | 22 | 63,680,000 | 727,000 | 58,879,000 | Exact total: 72 deals times 1,712,304 boards. The other three counts come from the five-decimal percentages and are rounded to the nearest thousand, so read them as approximate. **AJo against 22 read as odds** | Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AJo | 0.925 | 2.094 | 1.936 | 1.081 | | 22 | 1.081 | 1.936 | 2.094 | 0.925 | The last column is the break-even price: the pot odds a call needs to offer, as a ratio of pot to call. ## Who is ahead on which flops 22 prefers low rainbow flops (nine high or lower), where it holds 77.79%, and likes rainbow flops topped by a ten or better least, where it holds 46.15%. AJo is ahead on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better and monotone flops, even though it trails 22 when every flop is counted. **AJo against 22 by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | AJo wins | Ties | 22 wins | AJo equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 24.717 | 53.750 | 0.201 | 46.049 | 53.851 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 6.314 | 21.550 | 1.323 | 77.127 | 22.211 | | Two-tone | 46.485 | 47.521 | 0.411 | 52.068 | 47.727 | | Monotone | 5.151 | 49.269 | 2.645 | 48.086 | 50.591 | | Paired | 17.333 | 48.943 | 0.746 | 50.311 | 49.316 | 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 Each hand has a baseline against a random hand: 63.56% for AJo, 50.33% for 22. Here the change is -15.51 and +1.62 points. **AJo and 22 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AJo, all flops | 48.053 | 63.563 | -15.510 | 0.75599 | | AJo, rainbow, ten or higher | 53.851 | 63.563 | -9.712 | 0.84721 | | AJo, rainbow, nine or lower | 22.211 | 63.563 | -41.352 | 0.34943 | | AJo, two-tone | 47.727 | 63.563 | -15.836 | 0.75086 | | AJo, monotone | 50.591 | 63.563 | -12.972 | 0.79592 | | AJo, paired | 49.316 | 63.563 | -14.247 | 0.77586 | | 22, all flops | 51.947 | 50.334 | +1.613 | 1.03205 | | 22, rainbow, ten or higher | 46.149 | 50.334 | -4.185 | 0.91686 | | 22, rainbow, nine or lower | 77.789 | 50.334 | +27.455 | 1.54546 | | 22, two-tone | 52.273 | 50.334 | +1.939 | 1.03852 | | 22, monotone | 49.409 | 50.334 | -0.925 | 0.98162 | | 22, paired | 50.684 | 50.334 | +0.350 | 1.00695 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Two kinds of deal exist here. In 60 of them the hands share a suit and 22 holds 51.87%. In 12 they do not, and it holds 52.35%. 22 does better with no shared suit, by 0.48 points. **AJo against 22 by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | AJo wins | Ties | 22 wins | AJo equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 60 | 83.33 | 47.834 | 0.597 | 51.569 | 48.133 | | No shared suit | 12 | 16.67 | 47.374 | 0.554 | 52.072 | 47.651 | ## How often this matchup comes up Counting specific cards, AJo against 22 appears in 72 of the 1,624,350 ordered heads-up deals (0.0044%), and in 144 when the seats are swapped too (0.0089%). ## A worked example Try it with money: two players each put in $100 and the whole board runs out every possible way. 22 averages $103.90 from the $200, up $3.90; AJo averages $96.10, down $3.90. A thousand deals look like this: 22 takes 516, AJo takes 478, 6 are ties. ## The same matchup from the other side Read it from the other side: 22 against AJo is the same matchup with the numbers swapped, so 22 holds 51.95% and AJo holds 48.05%. That address sends you back to this page. ## Keep exploring AsJh against 2d2c is a ready-made deal for the calculator, with no suit in common between the hands. The neighboring matchups below replace one hand with another of similar strength. - [Open AsJh against 2d2c in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=AsJh&p2=2d2c) - [AJo combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/ajo.md) - [22 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/22.md) - [AJo vs 97s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ajo-vs-97s.md) - [AJo vs 87s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ajo-vs-87s.md) - [KQs vs 22](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqs-vs-22.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed This is an exact count with no sampling. For the 72 ways to deal one AJo and one 22 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 - [AJo vs 97s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ajo-vs-97s.md) - [AJo vs 87s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ajo-vs-87s.md) - [KQs vs 22: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqs-vs-22.md)