Broadway hands

Broadway hands covers 20 hands. Their average equity against a single random opponent is 61.8%, from AKs at 67.2% (rank 8 of 169) down to JTo at 55.3% (rank 57). That is a spread of 11.9 points inside a single hand type.

At a nine-handed table (eight opponents) the average falls to 17.7%, and even AKs holds only 22.4%. The all-hand average against eight opponents is 12.2%, so this type sits above the field once the pot goes multiway. AKs ranks 8 heads-up and 4 nine-handed.

Placed against the full 169, 10 of these 20 hands make the top twenty and 19 reach the top fifty. The middle of the group is KTs at 61.8% (rank 22). In deck terms the group accounts for 160 of the 1,326 possible two-card holdings, or 12.1% of everything you are dealt, so you will face these spots often enough that handling them well compounds. The table below lists every hand with its own numbers.

Put AA on the other side of the table — a hand you will run into often — and the best this group can do is JTs at 21.2%, while the worst is AKo at 6.8%. That is a 14.4-point spread inside one hand type, and 0 of them still hold even money or better against it. Grouping hands is useful shorthand, but once you know the specific opponent, the individual figure is the one that matters.

The biggest step in the ordering falls between QTo at 57.1% and JTo at 55.3%, a drop of 1.8 points, and that is where the group effectively splits into an upper and a lower tier. Elsewhere neighbouring hands are often separated by less than half a point, so remembering where the real step is will serve you better than memorising exact positions in the ranking.

Everything on this page assumes the opponent holds a random hand and that the pot is played to showdown. Real opponents hold ranges and can be made to fold, so read these figures as a measure of raw strength rather than as advice on how to play the group. Each hand was simulated over 400,000 showdowns against a single opponent, and every hand-versus-hand figure enumerates all suit layouts before running 200,000 simulated boards. The method page sets out how those numbers were checked against exact enumeration.