pocket Queens
- Rank
- 3of 169
- Equity vs random
- 79.9%
- Combinations
- 6
- Better than
- 98.6%
QQ ranks 3 out of the 169 starting hands in Hold'em. Against a random hand it wins 79.9% of the time, which puts it ahead of 98.6% 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 UTG (first position) for 2.5bb, and from MP (middle position), the cutoff and the button as well. If the button opens and you are in the big blind, the chart says raise (3-bet).
With a big pocket pair the plan is simple: get money in before the flop and do not let it go multiway cheaply. The trouble is never preflop, it is the boards that bring overcards or four to a flush. Against the UTG opening range — the tightest at the table — it is still ahead at 64.0%; against the big blind 3-bet range it drops to 55.2%, and that is where you start caring who raised.
What this hand makes
You flop a set 11.8% of the time — once every 8.5 flops — and 41.4% of flops bring at least one card higher than your pair. Going to the river every time, the hand ends up as two pair 39.6% 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 | 64.0% |
| MP opening range | 66+, A9s+, KTs+, QJs, ATo+, KQo | 66.5% |
| Cutoff opening range | 22+, A4s+, K9s+, Q9s+, J9s+, T9s, 98s, A9o+, KTo+, QTo+, JTo | 71.8% |
| Button opening range | 22+, A2s+, K5s+, Q7s+, J8s+, T8s+, 97s+, 86s+, 75s+, 65s, 54s, A2o+, K9o+, Q9o+, J9o+, T9o | 73.1% |
| Big blind 3-bet range | TT+, AQs+, A5s-A4s, AKo | 55.2% |
| Big blind calling range | 22-99, A2s-AJs, KTs+, QTs+, J9s+, T8s+, 97s+, 86s+, 76s, 65s, ATo+, KJo+, QJo | 74.1% |
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.