AKs vs 44: preflop equity

Counting every board, the equity split is 51.41% for 44 and 48.59% for AKs, so 44 leads by 2.82 points.

AKs

48.59%

Wins 48.32%, ties 0.53%

44

51.41%

Wins 51.15%, ties 0.53%

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

AKs against 44: the numbers

Exact preflop results for AKs against 44, in percent
HandWinsTiesLosesEquity
AKs48.3240.52651.15048.587
4451.1500.52648.32451.413

One side is a suited hand, the other is a pocket pair. One hand holds a pair and the other holds two cards that both outrank it, which keeps the equity closer than most people expect.

With only 2.82 points between them, the board decides this matchup far more than the cards in hand. About 0.53% of boards chop the pot, which is why equity sits slightly above the win figure for both hands.

For context, AKs sits at number 8 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
AKs19,859,000216,00021,020,000
4421,020,000216,00019,859,000

The total is exact: 24 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.

AKs against 44 read as odds
HandEquity as odds (to 1)Wins one deal inLoses one deal inPot odds needed to call (to 1)
AKs0.9452.0691.9551.058
441.0581.9552.0690.945

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

44 prefers low rainbow flops (nine high or lower), where it holds 77.65%, and likes rainbow flops topped by a ten or better least, where it holds 46.06%. Watch for rainbow flops topped by a ten or better: on those flops AKs holds the better equity.

AKs against 44 by flop texture, in percent
FlopShare of flopsAKs winsTies44 winsAKs equity
Rainbow, ten or higher24.59553.8400.19945.96153.940
Rainbow, nine or lower6.31421.8161.06977.11522.351
Two-tone46.54549.5950.34350.06249.766
Monotone5.21247.5022.82849.67048.916
Paired17.33446.9850.59252.42347.281

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: 67.05% for AKs, 57.02% for 44. Here the change is -18.46 and -5.61 points.

AKs and 44 here compared with each against a random hand, in percent
CaseEquity hereAgainst a random handChange in pointsTimes the random-hand equity
AKs, all flops48.58767.045-18.4580.72469
AKs, rainbow, ten or higher53.94067.045-13.1050.80453
AKs, rainbow, nine or lower22.35167.045-44.6940.33337
AKs, two-tone49.76667.045-17.2790.74228
AKs, monotone48.91667.045-18.1290.72960
AKs, paired47.28167.045-19.7640.70521
44, all flops51.41357.023-5.6100.90162
44, rainbow, ten or higher46.06057.023-10.9630.80774
44, rainbow, nine or lower77.64957.023+20.6261.36171
44, two-tone50.23457.023-6.7890.88094
44, monotone51.08457.023-5.9390.89585
44, paired52.71957.023-4.3040.92452

Does a shared suit matter?

Suit overlap shows up in the numbers. With a suit in common 44 has 51.60% equity, and with none in common it has 51.23%. 44 does better with a shared suit, by 0.37 points.

AKs against 44 by suit overlap, in percent
DealsSpecific dealsShare of dealsAKs winsTies44 winsAKs equity
Share a suit1250.0048.1190.56451.31748.401
No shared suit1250.0048.5290.48850.98348.773

How often this matchup comes up

Counting specific cards, AKs 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

Worked example: both players commit $100, so $200 sits in the middle. Over every board, 44's average share is $102.82 (a gain of $2.82) and AKs' is $97.18 (a loss of $2.82).

Out of 1,000 deals you should see around 512 outright wins for 44, 483 for AKs, and 5 split pots.

The same matchup from the other side

The reversed view, 44 against AKs, shows 51.41% for 44 and 48.59% for AKs. It is the same count, so it redirects here.

Open the calculator with AsKs against 4h4d already entered, a deal with no shared suit, and change any card to try your own hand. The matchups after it each swap one hand for a nearby one in the ranking.

How this was computed

The figures are counted, not estimated: 1,712,304 boards for every suit pattern of the 24 specific deals, with both seven-card hands compared each time. Equity gives half a win for a tie. For the flop rows, a board is counted once under each of the ten flops inside it.

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

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