--- title: "KK vs 22: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kk-vs-22.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kk-vs-22" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "KK is a big favorite over 22 before the flop: 81.81% to 18.19% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kk-vs-97s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kk-vs-87s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qq-vs-22.md"] --- # KK vs 22: preflop equity KK is a big favorite over 22 before the flop: 81.81% to 18.19% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Averaged over every possible board, KK is ahead of 22 by 63.62 points of equity, 81.81% to 18.19%. ## KK against 22: the numbers **Exact preflop results for KK against 22, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | KK | 81.543 | 0.539 | 17.918 | 81.813 | | 22 | 17.918 | 0.539 | 81.543 | 18.187 | Both hands are pocket pairs: KK and 22. Two pairs against each other is a one-way street: the lower pair needs one of its two remaining cards. This is one of the lopsided matchups: 22 wins only 17.92% of the boards outright. A split pot comes up on 0.54% of boards, so the wins and the equity differ by half of that. Ranked by equity against a random hand, KK is number 2 of the 169 starting hands and 22 is number 87. **Boards behind the percentages: 61,642,944 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | KK | 50,266,000 | 332,000 | 11,045,000 | | 22 | 11,045,000 | 332,000 | 50,266,000 | 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. **KK 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) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | KK | 4.498 | 1.226 | 5.581 | 0.222 | | 22 | 0.222 | 5.581 | 1.226 | 4.498 | 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 Paired flops are the best for KK (87.20%); low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) are the worst (69.73%). KK stays ahead on all five textures, but the swing between them is large, so how the flop looks matters a great deal. **KK against 22 by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | KK wins | Ties | 22 wins | KK equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 24.595 | 84.153 | 0.255 | 15.592 | 84.280 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 6.314 | 68.985 | 1.492 | 29.523 | 69.731 | | Two-tone | 46.363 | 80.464 | 0.486 | 19.050 | 80.707 | | Monotone | 5.152 | 75.073 | 2.698 | 22.229 | 76.422 | | Paired | 17.576 | 87.145 | 0.100 | 12.755 | 87.195 | 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 Compared with a random opponent, this matchup shifts KK from 82.40% by -0.59 points and 22 from 50.33% by -32.14 points. **KK 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | KK, all flops | 81.813 | 82.396 | -0.583 | 0.99292 | | KK, rainbow, ten or higher | 84.280 | 82.396 | +1.884 | 1.02287 | | KK, rainbow, nine or lower | 69.731 | 82.396 | -12.665 | 0.84629 | | KK, two-tone | 80.707 | 82.396 | -1.689 | 0.97950 | | KK, monotone | 76.422 | 82.396 | -5.974 | 0.92750 | | KK, paired | 87.195 | 82.396 | +4.799 | 1.05824 | | 22, all flops | 18.187 | 50.334 | -32.147 | 0.36133 | | 22, rainbow, ten or higher | 15.720 | 50.334 | -34.614 | 0.31231 | | 22, rainbow, nine or lower | 30.269 | 50.334 | -20.065 | 0.60136 | | 22, two-tone | 19.293 | 50.334 | -31.041 | 0.38330 | | 22, monotone | 23.578 | 50.334 | -26.756 | 0.46843 | | 22, paired | 12.805 | 50.334 | -37.529 | 0.25440 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Looking only at deals where the hands share a suit, KK has 81.95%; looking only at deals where they do not, 81.15%. KK does better with a shared suit, by 0.80 points. **KK against 22 by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | KK wins | Ties | 22 wins | KK equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 30 | 83.33 | 81.672 | 0.546 | 17.782 | 81.945 | | No shared suit | 6 | 16.67 | 80.901 | 0.502 | 18.597 | 81.152 | ## How often this matchup comes up How often does it happen? 36 of the 1,624,350 ordered deals (0.0022%) are KK against 22, and 72 (0.0044%) if either hand may sit in either seat. ## A worked example With $100 from each side, the $200 pot is split on average as $163.62 for KK and $36.38 for 22; the first side gains $63.62 per all-in and the second gives up $63.62. Over a long run, 1,000 deals split into about 816 for KK, 179 for 22 and 5 tied. ## The same matchup from the other side 22 versus KK is this same page seen from the other hand: 18.19% for 22, 81.81% for KK. ## Keep exploring Open the calculator with KsKh against 2d2c 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. - [Open KsKh against 2d2c in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=KsKh&p2=2d2c) - [KK combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/kk.md) - [22 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/22.md) - [KK vs 97s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kk-vs-97s.md) - [KK vs 87s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kk-vs-87s.md) - [QQ vs 22](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qq-vs-22.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed All 1,712,304 five-card boards are dealt for every suit pattern among the 36 specific deals of KK against 22, 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. ## Related - [KK vs 97s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kk-vs-97s.md) - [KK vs 87s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kk-vs-87s.md) - [QQ vs 22: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qq-vs-22.md)