Range vs Range Equity Calculator

Hand equity is a distribution, not a number

When players say "my hand has 60% equity against his range," they mean something imprecise. What they have is a weighted average equity across every hand in the opponent's range and every possible runout. The equity distribution across board textures tells a richer story: your hand might have 80% equity on dry boards and 40% equity on coordinated ones, with an average that means very little individually. The equity calculator exposes this distribution.

The model

Range-vs-range equity calculation works by:

1. Enumerating every hand combination in Range A against every hand combination in Range B.
2. For each pairing, running complete board enumeration (or a fast Monte Carlo for large range-vs-range calculations).
3. Weighting each result by combo frequency (accounting for card removal: a hand using the Ah is unavailable if Ah is in the other range or on the board).
4. Aggregating weighted results to produce overall equity.

The combo count for a range: pocket pairs have 6 combos (C(4,2)), suited hands have 4 combos, offsuit hands have 12 combos. A range containing AKs, AKo, and QQ contains 4 + 12 + 6 = 22 combos, representing 22/1326 = 1.66% of all pre-flop hands. Card removal on the board and in the opposing range can reduce this count significantly.

Worked example: pre-flop range equity

Hero 3-bet range from the BTN: [QQ+, AK]. Villain's cold-call range: [TT-JJ, AQs, KQs, AQo]. Hero's equity: approximately 58%. The range calculation weights each of the 12 hero combos against each of the villain's combos. QQ vs TT is 80-20; AKo vs AQo is 74-26; AKs vs AQs is 73-27. The aggregate falls to 58% because JJ has reasonable equity against AK (roughly 45-55), pulling the average down.

Flop texture analysis

Enter a flop and the equity distribution shifts. On a K-Q-7 rainbow flop, hero's AK subset goes from 74% to over 90% equity (top pair top kicker on a non-threatening board), while QQ still holds well. The combined range equity on this flop rises to approximately 68%. On a T-J-9 rainbow, it tells a different story: villain's KQ and TT-JJ hit this board hard, and AK has gutshot equity plus overcards but no made hand. Range equity drops to approximately 45-48% on that texture.

The equity distribution histogram makes this visible without manual calculation: it shows the percentage of possible flops on which hero's range equity exceeds 50%, 60%, or 70%, which is the "range advantage" metric that GTO solvers use to determine appropriate continuation bet frequencies.

What each output means

Overall range equity is the single weighted average number. Combo count tells you how many distinct hand combinations are in each range after card removal. Equity distribution histogram shows the distribution of per-flop equities across all possible runouts. Specific hand equity within the range lets you click any combo and see its equity against the opposing range in isolation. Blocked combos display shows which hands are removed from each range due to board cards or the other range's holdings.

PLO equity calculation

PLO equity calculations are substantially more complex than NLH because each player uses exactly two of four hole cards with three community cards. The number of valid five-card combinations per player is C(4,2) * C(5,3) = 6 * 10 = 60 per hand, and the best of those 60 is selected. Range-vs-range PLO equity still runs the same enumeration process, but the volume of computation is higher. The calculator handles PLO4 fully; PLO5 support (for five-card Omaha, which GGPoker and WPT Global spread) is available via a format toggle.

Where the model breaks

Equity calculations assume cards are randomly distributed and boards are equally weighted. This is mathematically correct for a random runout but misses the key point of poker: you don't play against random runouts. You play against opponents with betting patterns that correlate with their hand strength. A villain who checks back the flop in a spot where they'd bet with top pair is removing top pair from their range on the turn, which changes their range composition in ways the static equity calculator cannot track without manual range updates after each street.

The range-vs-range calculation is only as good as the range estimates. Assigning too wide or too narrow a range to your opponent produces equity numbers that are precisely calculated and completely wrong. Use equity calculation as a study tool for building intuition about typical spots, not as a real-time calculation device during play.

For translating equity numbers into calling decisions, the pot odds calculator gives you the required equity threshold. For specific all-in match-ups with exact hands, the hold'em odds calculator provides precise enumeration without the range-estimation step.