QQ vs JJ

The numbers

Exact, not simulated. QQ means a pair of queens and JJ means a pair of jacks: 36 legal ways to deal the two hands, and every one of the 1,712,304 possible five-card boards dealt for each — 61,642,944 board-and-hand combinations in total, each one scored by the same evaluator the calculator uses. Combinations that are the same hand with the suits renamed were counted once and weighted by how many they stand for: 3 distinct suit patterns stand in for all 36, which is the same answer for 12 times less work.

Why it comes out this way

The pair of queens is ahead before a card is dealt, and only the board can change that. Just two jacks are left in the deck, so the pair of jacks normally has to catch one of those two cards to take the lead.

The pair of jacks wins 17.8% of the time: three of a kind from one of those two cards, or a straight or a flush built almost entirely out of community cards.

The two hands split the pot 0.4% of the time, on the boards where the five community cards themselves are the best five cards for both players.

Open it in the calculator

The link below deals one typical version of this matchup — Q♠of spadesQ♥of hearts against J♠of spadesJ♦of diamonds — into the calculator, with both hands set and the board empty. Add community cards one at a time to watch the equity move, or change a card to see how much the suits are worth.

Open QQ vs JJ in the calculator