KK vs 55: preflop equity

Before any board card is dealt, KK holds 80.48% equity against 55, which leaves 55 with 19.52%.

KK

80.48%

Wins 80.28%, ties 0.42%

55

19.52%

Wins 19.30%, ties 0.42%

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

KK against 55: the numbers

Exact preflop results for KK against 55, in percent
HandWinsTiesLosesEquity
KK80.2760.41619.30880.484
5519.3080.41680.27619.516

The matchup is pocket pairs on both sides, KK against 55. A pair against a smaller pair is the classic crush: the smaller pair needs one of its two remaining cards to make a set.

This is one of the lopsided matchups: 55 wins only 19.30% of the boards outright. About 0.42% of boards chop the pot, which is why equity sits slightly above the win figure for both hands.

In the ranking of all 169 starting hands, KK is number 2 and 55 is number 27.

Boards behind the percentages: 61,642,944 counted in all
HandBoards won, aboutBoards tied, aboutBoards lost, about
KK49,484,000256,00011,902,000
5511,902,000256,00049,484,000

The board total is exact, 36 deals at 1,712,304 boards each. Won, tied and lost counts are rounded to the nearest thousand from the five-decimal percentages.

KK against 55 read as odds
HandEquity as odds (to 1)Wins one deal inLoses one deal inPot odds needed to call (to 1)
KK4.1241.2465.1790.242
550.2425.1791.2464.124

The last column is the smallest pot odds, written as a pot-to-call ratio, at which a call breaks even with this equity.

Who is ahead on which flops

Split by what the flop looks like, KK peaks at 86.52% on paired flops and bottoms out at 65.09% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower). 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 55 by flop texture, in percent
FlopShare of flopsKK winsTies55 winsKK equity
Rainbow, ten or higher24.59583.4590.25516.28683.586
Rainbow, nine or lower6.31464.6100.95934.43165.089
Two-tone46.36379.0700.38320.54779.262
Monotone5.15274.0121.88724.10174.956
Paired17.57686.4700.10013.43086.520

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

Compared with a random opponent, this matchup shifts KK from 82.40% by -1.92 points and 55 from 60.33% by -40.81 points.

KK and 55 here compared with each against a random hand, in percent
CaseEquity hereAgainst a random handChange in pointsTimes the random-hand equity
KK, all flops80.48482.396-1.9120.97679
KK, rainbow, ten or higher83.58682.396+1.1901.01444
KK, rainbow, nine or lower65.08982.396-17.3070.78995
KK, two-tone79.26282.396-3.1340.96196
KK, monotone74.95682.396-7.4400.90970
KK, paired86.52082.396+4.1241.05005
55, all flops19.51660.325-40.8090.32351
55, rainbow, ten or higher16.41460.325-43.9110.27209
55, rainbow, nine or lower34.91160.325-25.4140.57872
55, two-tone20.73860.325-39.5870.34377
55, monotone25.04460.325-35.2810.41515
55, paired13.48060.325-46.8450.22346

Does a shared suit matter?

Two kinds of deal exist here. In 30 of them the hands share a suit and KK holds 80.62%. In 6 they do not, and it holds 79.83%. KK does better with a shared suit, by 0.79 points.

KK against 55 by suit overlap, in percent
DealsSpecific dealsShare of dealsKK winsTies55 winsKK equity
Share a suit3083.3380.4000.43119.16980.615
No shared suit616.6779.6590.34120.00079.830

How often this matchup comes up

Out of 1,624,350 ways to deal two seats two cards each, 36 are KK in one seat and 55 in the other (0.0022%); with the seats swapped too, 72 (0.0044%).

A worked example

A $100 all-in from each player makes a $200 pot, and the exact equity says KK gets $160.96 of it on average and 55 gets $39.04.

In 1,000 deals of exactly this matchup, expect about 803 won outright by KK, about 193 won outright by 55 and about 4 split.

The same matchup from the other side

If you came looking for 55 against KK, the numbers are the same with the hands swapped: 19.52% and 80.48%.

The calculator link fills in KsKh against 5d5c, 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

Method: exact enumeration. The 36 specific deals are grouped by suit pattern, each is run against all 1,712,304 boards, and both seven-card hands are scored. Equity adds half of every tie, and flop textures are tallied over the ten flops inside each board.

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

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