42o

42o (four-deuce offsuit) wins 33.3% of the time against a single random opponent, which places it 168th out of the 169 starting hands — the top 99.4% of the range. At a six-handed table (five opponents) its equity falls to 9.5% and its rank moves to 164; nine-handed (eight opponents) it holds 6.4% for rank 161. Two unconnected offsuit cards — the class of hand most often overvalued.

Its suited/offsuit twin 42s runs at 36.9% (rank 158), a gap of 3.6 points. Losing the shared suit costs 3.6 points of raw equity. The hand directly above it in the ranking is 62o at 34.1%, and directly below is 32o at 32.3%, so three hands are packed into a band of 1.8 points.

Played heads-up against each of the other 168 hands, 42o is a favourite against 2 of them and an underdog against 166. Its best matchup is 32o at 53.0% and its worst is 44 at 10.7% — a spread of 42.3 points, which is why calling 42o simply "strong" or "weak" says very little. 1 opponents land inside one point of a coinflip, the closest being 32s at 50.5%.

It is dominated by 8 hands in return, the worst of them A4s, which leaves 42o with only 23.4%. A single kicker can move the number by tens of points, and the full table below lists every one of those opponents.

Within the 78 offsuit hands it comes 77 of 78. The strongest hand in that group, AKo, is 32.1 points away, and the weakest, 32o, sits 1 points below. Measured against the average equity of all 169 hands, 51%, 42o lands -17.7 points from the middle of the pack, and 167 hands in the full ranking are still ahead of it.

Adding players costs equity steadily: 33.3% against one opponent, 20.7% against two, 11.6% against four and 6.4% against eight. That last figure is 58% of an even nine-way share (11.1%). The Chen formula scores this hand at 2 points, and it arrives 0.9% of the time (12 of 1,326 combinations).

One caveat worth repeating: every number on this page assumes the opponent holds a completely random hand and that the pot goes to showdown. Real opponents hold ranges, and a range that has already put money in is stronger than random — which is exactly why 42o reads as 33.3% here but plays worse than that against a raise. Use the 168 rows in the table below to see which specific holdings are the problem, rather than treating the headline figure as a verdict on the hand.

42o pairs the board on the flop — at least one of its two ranks hits — 32.4% of the time, and flops top pair or better (the paired card is the highest on the board, or two pair and up) 3.56%. By the river it has made a pair or better 48.7% of the time.

For straights, the flop completes one 0.653% of the time (128 flops), gives an eight-out draw 3.67% and a four-out gutshot 12.7%. By the river a straight using a hole card completes 5.20% of the time.

Put together, 42o flops a pair or better or a strong draw (an eight-out straight draw) 36.3% of the time — rank 105 of the 156 unpaired hands (tied with 1 other). The highest is JTs, T9s, 98s and 4 others at 50.6% and the lowest AKo, A2o at 32.8%.

Against one random hand, 42o goes from 33.2% before the flop up to 58.2% when either card pairs, and down to 21.2% when both miss. It connects 32.4% of the time (6,356 of 19,600 flops). Missing with a card above 4 on board leaves 21.2%; missing with nothing above 4 leaves 27.2%.

By board shape: rainbow 33.1%, two-tone 33.1%, monotone 35.5%. A monotone flop in one of your suits gives 42.4%. A paired board gives 31.8%, and a connected board (three ranks within five) 31.4%. The best row in the table is "Either card hits (a matching rank on the flop)" at 58.2%, the worst "and at least one card above 4" at 21.2%.

The 33.3% at the top of the page is a 400,000-hand simulation; this table counts every deal of the opponent's two cards and the five-card board (2,097,572,400 per starting hand), which puts the pre-flop figure at 33.20% (a gap of 0.10 points). Each equity is taken with the flop out and the turn and river still to come.