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55 vs 54s

55
VS
54s
81.1%
equity for 55 — 54s takes 18.9%

Pair against one overcard — roughly 70/30 in the pair's favour.

55 Win
78.5%
Tie
5.2%
55 Lose
16.3%
Card combinations
12
55 vs random
60.3% · #27
54s vs random
41.4% · #138
Breakdown

Win, tie and loss for 55

Win 78.5%Lose 16.3%

When 55 and 54s get all in before the flop, 55 wins 81.1% of the time and 54s takes 18.9%. Broken down, 55 wins outright 78.5%, chops 5.2% and loses 16.3% — a margin of 62.2 points. Pair against one overcard — roughly 70/30 in the pair's favour.

The same matchup shifts depending on how the suits overlap. With no shared suit the number is 81.1% (for example 5s 5h against 5d 4d); with no shared suit it is 81.1% (5s 5h against 5d 4d). That is a spread of 0 points across the 12 distinct card combinations, and it comes almost entirely from whether the two hands are fighting over the same flush.

Add a third player holding a random hand and the split becomes 55 45.4%, 54s 16.5%, random 38.1%. 55 gives up 35.8 points and 54s gives up 2.4, so the favourite loses more than the underdog does. Extra players always eat into the leader's share faster than into anyone else's.

Taken on their own, 55 is worth 60.3% against a random hand (rank 27 of 169) and 54s is worth 41.4% (rank 138). The gap between them in the ranking is only 18.9 points, yet head to head the gap is 62.2 points — a reminder that a ranking table and a direct matchup are two different questions.

Framed as a run of one hundred identical all-ins, 55 scoops roughly 79 pots, splits about 5, and loses the remaining 16. Against eight random opponents rather than this one specific hand, 55 would be down to 13.2% and 54s to 12.6%, so the shape of this particular confrontation matters far more than either hand's standing in the overall ranking.

From 54s's side, 18.9% is the break-even point for calling an all-in at 4.29:1 pot odds. Put another way, the call is profitable as long as the amount you have to put in is less than 18.9% of the pot you are playing for. 55 holds the other 81.1% of that same pot.

Two caveats keep this figure honest. First, it is showdown equity across all 12 card combinations with five board cards still to come — there is no fold equity in it, so the value of shoving in practice is usually higher than the raw percentage suggests. Second, it assumes 54s really does hold exactly 54s; against the wider range a player would actually get all in with, 55's 81.1% moves. Use the individual pages for 55 and 54s to see how each of them fares against all 168 other holdings before treating this single pairing as the whole picture.

By shared suits

Overlapping suits move the number

200,000 simulated showdowns per condition. The example column shows one concrete four-card layout.

ConditionExampleCombos55 EquityWinTieLose
No shared suit5s 5h vs 5d 4d1281.1%78.5%5.2%16.3%
Three-way

Adding a random third hand

200,000 simulated showdowns, with the third hand dealt at random each time.

55
45.4%
vs heads-up -35.8pt
54s
16.5%
vs heads-up -2.4pt
Random third hand
38.1%
Player count

At a bigger table

Random opponents5554s
160.3%41.4%
240.1%28.9%
422.6%19.0%
813.2%12.6%

Related

FAQ

55 or 54s — which is ahead preflop?

55 is the favourite. 55 takes 81.1% and 54s 18.9%, a margin of 62.2 points, with 5.2% of hands ending in a chop.

Do the suits change 55 vs 54s?

Yes. With no shared suit it is 81.1%, and with no shared suit it is 81.1% — a swing of up to 0 points.

What happens three-way?

With one extra random hand in the pot the split is 55 45.4%, 54s 16.5%, random 38.1%. 55 drops 35.8 points compared with heads-up.

428 words / 31 distinct figures — Method