77

77 (pocket sevens) wins 66.3% of the time against a single random opponent, which places it 9th out of the 169 starting hands — the top 5.3% of the range. At a six-handed table (five opponents) its equity falls to 22.0% and its rank moves to 34; nine-handed (eight opponents) it holds 14.6% for rank 39. A small pair — cheap to play, huge when it flops a set.

As a pocket pair there is no suited twin; instead there are 6 combinations of it in the deck, so you are dealt it 0.45% of the time (6 of 1,326 two-card hands). The hand ranked one place above is AKs at 67.2% and one place below is AQs at 66.2%. Every pocket pair flops a set about 11.8% of the time, so the pecking order among pairs is decided almost entirely before the flop.

Played heads-up against each of the other 168 hands, 77 is a favourite against 157 of them and an underdog against 11. Its best matchup is 72o at 93.5% and its worst is 88 at 18.2% — a spread of 75.3 points, which is why calling 77 simply "strong" or "weak" says very little. 5 opponents land inside one point of a coinflip, the closest being T9s at 50.0%.

77 shares a rank with relatively few hands, so it is rarely on the wrong side of a kicker problem. What does hurt it is running into a higher pair, where the number bottoms out at 18.2%. The table further down lists all 168 opponents individually.

Within the 13 pocket pairs it comes 8 of 13. The strongest hand in that group, AA, is 18.9 points away, and the weakest, 22, sits 16.1 points below. Measured against the average equity of all 169 hands, 51%, 77 lands +15.3 points from the middle of the pack, and 8 hands in the full ranking are still ahead of it.

Adding players costs equity steadily: 66.3% against one opponent, 46.5% against two, 26.9% against four and 14.6% against eight. That last figure is 132% of an even nine-way share (11.1%). The Chen formula scores this hand at 7 points, and it arrives 0.45% of the time (6 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 77 reads as 66.3% 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.

77 flops a set or better (set, full house or quads) 11.8% of the time — 2,304 of 19,600 flops, or 1 in 8.5 — and exactly a set 10.8%. By the river that rises to 19.2%. Those figures are identical for every pocket pair; what differs from pair to pair is what the flop looks like when the set misses.

When the set misses, all three flop cards come in below 7 — leaving an overpair — 5.82% of the time, while at least one higher card lands 82.4% of the time (1 in 1.2). The chance of staying an overpair is 10.3% for 88 (one pair up), and 2.86% for 66 (one pair down).

Against one random hand, 77 goes from 66.2% before the flop to 91.8% when it flops a set or better (11.8% of flops). Without a set, it holds 70.0% when all three cards are below 7 (still an overpair) and drops to 62.3% when a card above 7 lands (82.4%, 16,156 of 19,600 flops).

By board shape: rainbow 67.2%, two-tone 65.9%, monotone 62.5%. A monotone flop in one of your suits gives 67.9%. A paired board gives 68.3%, and a connected board (three ranks within five) 64.4%. The best row in the table is "Set or better (at least one 7 on the flop)" at 91.8%, the worst "No set, at least one card above 7" at 62.3%.

The 66.3% 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 66.24% (a gap of 0.06 points). Each equity is taken with the flop out and the turn and river still to come.