Q5o

Q5o (queen-five offsuit) wins 50.2% of the time against a single random opponent, which places it 87th out of the 169 starting hands — the top 51.5% of the range. At a six-handed table (five opponents) its equity falls to 13.7% and its rank moves to 126; nine-handed (eight opponents) it holds 8.4% for rank 137. Two unconnected offsuit cards — the class of hand most often overvalued.

Its suited/offsuit twin Q5s runs at 52.8% (rank 72), a gap of 2.6 points. Losing the shared suit costs 2.6 points of raw equity. The hand directly above it in the ranking is K2o at 50.4%, and directly below is 22 at 50.2%, so three hands are packed into a band of 0.2 points.

Played heads-up against each of the other 168 hands, Q5o is a favourite against 96 of them and an underdog against 72. Its best matchup is J5o at 74.1% and its worst is QQ at 7.0% — a spread of 67.1 points, which is why calling Q5o simply "strong" or "weak" says very little.

Q5o dominates 8 hands that share one of its ranks, pushing hardest against J5o at 74.1%. It is dominated by 8 hands in return, the worst of them AQs, which leaves Q5o with only 23.3%. 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 34 of 78. The strongest hand in that group, AKo, is 15.2 points away, and the weakest, 32o, sits 17.9 points below. Measured against the average equity of all 169 hands, 51%, Q5o lands -0.8 points from the middle of the pack, and 86 hands in the full ranking are still ahead of it.

Adding players costs equity steadily: 50.2% against one opponent, 31.2% against two, 17.5% against four and 8.4% against eight. That last figure is 76% 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 Q5o reads as 50.2% 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.

Q5o 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) 14.1%. By the river it has made a pair or better 48.7% of the time.

For straights, the flop completes one 0.0000% of the time (zero flops — the two cards are too far apart), gives an eight-out draw 1.96% and a four-out gutshot 6.53%. By the river a straight using a hole card completes 3.29% of the time.

Put together, Q5o flops a pair or better or a strong draw (an eight-out straight draw) 34.4% of the time — rank 122 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, Q5o goes from 50.1% before the flop up to 71.1% when either card pairs, and down to 40.0% when both miss. It connects 32.4% of the time (6,356 of 19,600 flops). Missing with a card above Q on board leaves 42.3%; missing with nothing above Q leaves 38.1%.

By board shape: rainbow 50.5%, two-tone 49.9%, monotone 50.2%. A monotone flop in one of your suits gives 59.0%. A paired board gives 51.3%, and a connected board (three ranks within five) 50.6%. The best row in the table is "Either card hits (a matching rank on the flop)" at 71.1%, the worst "and nothing above Q" at 38.1%.

The 50.2% 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 50.12% (a gap of 0.08 points). Each equity is taken with the flop out and the turn and river still to come.