Pocket pairs

Pocket pairs covers 13 hands. Their average equity against a single random opponent is 68.6%, from AA at 85.2% (rank 1 of 169) down to 22 at 50.2% (rank 88). That is a spread of 35.0 points inside a single hand type.

At a nine-handed table (eight opponents) the average falls to 18.7%, and even AA holds only 34.5%. The all-hand average against eight opponents is 12.2%, so this type sits above the field once the pot goes multiway. AA ranks 1 heads-up and 1 nine-handed.

Placed against the full 169, 9 of these 13 hands make the top twenty and 11 reach the top fifty. The middle of the group is 88 at 69.2% (rank 7). In deck terms the group accounts for 78 of the 1,326 possible two-card holdings, or 5.9% of everything you are dealt, so each individual decision carries more weight simply because the spot comes up rarely. The table below lists every hand with its own numbers.

Put AKo on the other side of the table — a hand you will run into often — and the best this group can do is AA at 93.2%, while the worst is 22 at 52.5%. That is a 40.7-point spread inside one hand type, and 13 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 33 at 53.7% and 22 at 50.2%, a drop of 3.5 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.