54s

54s (five-four suited) wins 41.4% of the time against a single random opponent, which places it 138th out of the 169 starting hands — the top 81.7% of the range. At a six-handed table (five opponents) its equity falls to 16.3% and its rank moves to 93; nine-handed (eight opponents) it holds 12.6% for rank 66. A suited connector — straight and flush draws in the same holding.

Its suited/offsuit twin 54o runs at 38.1% (rank 152), a gap of 3.3 points. Sharing a suit is worth exactly those 3.3 points here — nothing about the ranks changes. The hand directly above it in the ranking is 85o at 41.4%, and directly below is 83s at 40.7%, so three hands are packed into a band of 0.7 points.

Played heads-up against each of the other 168 hands, 54s is a favourite against 16 of them and an underdog against 152. Its best matchup is 42o at 63.2% and its worst is 55 at 18.9% — a spread of 44.3 points, which is why calling 54s simply "strong" or "weak" says very little. 7 opponents land inside one point of a coinflip, the closest being 33 at 50.1%.

54s dominates 2 hands that share one of its ranks, pushing hardest against 42o at 63.2%. It is dominated by 8 hands in return, the worst of them A5s, which leaves 54s with only 30.8%. 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 suited hands it comes 67 of 78. The strongest hand in that group, AKs, is 25.8 points away, and the weakest, 32s, sits 5.5 points below. Measured against the average equity of all 169 hands, 51%, 54s lands -9.6 points from the middle of the pack, and 137 hands in the full ranking are still ahead of it.

Adding players costs equity steadily: 41.4% against one opponent, 28.9% against two, 19.0% against four and 12.6% against eight. That last figure is 114% of an even nine-way share (11.1%). The Chen formula scores this hand at 5.5 points, and it arrives 0.3% of the time (4 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 54s reads as 41.4% 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.

54s 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) 4.33%. By the river it has made a pair or better 48.7% of the time.

For straights, the flop completes one 1.31% of the time (256 flops), gives an eight-out draw 9.71% and a four-out gutshot 16.8%. By the river a straight using a hole card completes 9.12% of the time. For flushes, two or more of its suit land on the flop 11.8% of the time (a made flush 0.842%), and a flush is complete by the river 6.40%.

Put together, 54s flops a pair or better or a strong draw (a flush draw or an eight-out straight draw) 50.6% of the time — rank 1 of the 156 unpaired hands (tied with 6 others). The highest is JTs, T9s, 98s and 4 others at 50.6% and the lowest AKo, A2o at 32.8%.

Against one random hand, 54s goes from 41.5% before the flop up to 62.8% when either card pairs, and down to 31.2% when both miss. It connects 32.4% of the time (6,356 of 19,600 flops). Missing with a card above 5 on board leaves 31.1%; missing with nothing above 5 leaves 44.0%.

By board shape: rainbow 39.9%, two-tone 42.4%, monotone 43.3%. Two of your suit (a flush draw) gives 54.5% (10.9% of flops), and three of your suit (a made flush) 89.5% (0.842%). A paired board gives 38.4%, and a connected board (three ranks within five) 44.1%. The best row in the table is "Three of your suit (made flush)" at 89.5%, the worst "and at least one card above 5" at 31.1%.

The 41.4% 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 41.45% (a gap of 0.05 points). Each equity is taken with the flop out and the turn and river still to come.