55
pocket 5s
- Rank
- 28of 169
- Equity vs random
- 60.1%
- Combinations
- 6
- Better than
- 85.8%
55 ranks 28 out of the 169 starting hands in Hold'em. Against a random hand it wins 60.1% of the time, which puts it ahead of 85.8% of all possible deals once the deck is sorted by that equity. It comes with 6 of the 1,326 possible combinations — 0.5% of the hands you will be dealt.
How to play it before the flop
The fundamentals charts open it from the cutoff for 2.5bb, and from the button as well. If the button opens and you are in the big blind, the chart says call.
A small pair is a lottery ticket with a price tag: you flop a set roughly one time in eight, and the other seven you usually have to give up. Its 51.9% against the button range rests on those sets, not on the pair of 5s. Play it for implied odds — cheap, in position, hunting the big pots.
What this hand makes
You flop a set 11.8% of the time — once every 8.5 flops — and 98.1% of flops bring at least one card higher than your pair. Going to the river every time, the hand ends up as two pair 39.5% of the time.
Where it ends up if you see all five cards
Exact enumeration, no sampling: the flop events run through all 19,600 possible flops and the final distribution through all 2,118,760 five-card boards. The distribution assumes you always reach the river, so it describes the hand’s potential rather than a real session, where most hands are folded earlier. Open-ended includes double gutshots (two distinct ranks complete it).
Against the reference ranges
| Range | Notation | Your equity |
|---|---|---|
| UTG opening range | 77+, ATs+, KQs, AJo+, KQo | 39.3% |
| MP opening range | 66+, A9s+, KTs+, QJs, ATo+, KQo | 40.8% |
| Cutoff opening range | 22+, A4s+, K9s+, Q9s+, J9s+, T9s, 98s, A9o+, KTo+, QTo+, JTo | 48.0% |
| Button opening range | 22+, A2s+, K5s+, Q7s+, J8s+, T8s+, 97s+, 86s+, 75s+, 65s, 54s, A2o+, K9o+, Q9o+, J9o+, T9o | 51.9% |
| Big blind 3-bet range | TT+, AQs+, A5s-A4s, AKo | 36.6% |
| Big blind calling range | 22-99, A2s-AJs, KTs+, QTs+, J9s+, T8s+, 97s+, 86s+, 76s, 65s, ATo+, KJo+, QJo | 51.7% |
Equity if the hand goes to the river against an opponent holding exactly that range. 120,000-hand Monte Carlo with a fixed seed, computed by our engine.
Hand versus hand
These are not estimates: they are the exact enumeration of all 1,712,304 possible boards for each matchup. Suited hands are matched up in different suits.