What does offsuit mean in poker?
Offsuit means your two hole cards are of different suits: the ace of spades and the king of hearts is ace-king offsuit, written AKo. The same two ranks in one suit are suited, written AKs. Pairs are neither, since two cards of the same rank always differ in suit.
Most hands are offsuit. Each of the 78 unpaired rank combinations, like ace-king or seven-two, can be dealt 12 ways offsuit and only 4 ways suited, so 936 of the 1,326 possible hands are offsuit: 70.6%. Suited hands are 23.5% and pairs 5.9%.
How much worse is an offsuit hand than a suited one?
Less than most players think: 2.7 percentage points of equity on average. We ran every one of the 78 rank pairs, suited and offsuit, against a random hand all in before the flop, using our equity calculator’s engine.
| Hand | Suited wins | Offsuit wins | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ace-king | 67.1% | 65.4% | +1.7 |
| Queen-jack | 60.1% | 58.1% | +2.0 |
| Ace-five | 59.7% | 57.7% | +2.0 |
| Jack-ten | 57.3% | 55.1% | +2.2 |
| Eight-seven | 47.9% | 44.9% | +3.0 |
| Five-four | 41.5% | 38.2% | +3.3 |
| Three-deuce | 36.0% | 32.4% | +3.6 |
The gap is smallest for big cards, which win mostly by pairing, and largest for small, connected cards, which win mostly with straights and flushes. It runs from 1.7 points for ace-king and ace-jack to 3.6 for three-deuce. In raw equity, king-ten offsuit (22nd of the 156 unpaired hands) is ahead of seven-six suited (102nd).
Why does suited matter so much if the gap is small?
Because equity against a random hand counts only showdowns, and most hands never reach one. A suited hand makes a flush 6.4% of the time by the river, against 1.85% for an offsuit hand in either of its suits, and it flops a flush draw 10.9% of the time. That draw lets it keep betting or calling when it misses the flop, so it gets to see the turn and river far more often than an offsuit hand that missed. The flush figures are exact; the rest of this paragraph is standard theory about how hands play after the flop.
How do solver ranges treat offsuit hands?
Far more harshly than the equity gap suggests. In PlusEV’s 6-max cash solver ranges at 100 big blinds, every seat plays a much bigger share of the suited combos than of the offsuit ones:
| Seat, first in | Suited combos played | Offsuit combos played |
|---|---|---|
| Under the gun | 31.9% | 7.5% |
| Hijack | 38.2% | 10.6% |
| Cutoff | 49.7% | 15.7% |
| Button | 64.7% | 28.1% |
| Small blind (raise or limp) | 82.6% | 43.2% |
No seat plays an offsuit hand while folding the suited version of the same ranks. The reverse is everywhere: under the gun opens 18 hands only when suited, from ace-nine down to ace-three, king-ten, queen-jack, jack-ten and six-five among them.
Defending the big blind shows it most clearly. Facing a button open, the big blind defends 68.8% of suited combos and 18.6% of offsuit ones. King-deuce suited and ten-seven suited defend every time; king-deuce offsuit and ten-seven offsuit never do.
| AA | AKs | AQs | AJs | ATs | A9s | A8s | A7s | A6s | A5s | A4s | A3s | A2s |
| AKo | KK | KQs | KJs | KTs | K9s | K8s | K7s | K6s | K5s | K4s | K3s | K2s |
| AQo | KQo | QJs | QTs | Q9s | Q8s | Q7s | Q6s | Q5s | Q4s | Q3s | Q2s | |
| AJo | KJo | QJo | JJ | JTs | J9s | J8s | J7s | J6s | J5s | J4s | J3s | J2s |
| ATo | KTo | QTo | JTo | TT | T9s | T8s | T7s | T6s | T5s | T4s | T3s | T2s |
| A9o | K9o | Q9o | J9o | T9o | 99 | 98s | 97s | 96s | 95s | 94s | 93s | 92s |
| A8o | K8o | Q8o | J8o | T8o | 98o | 88 | 87s | 86s | 85s | 84s | 83s | 82s |
| A7o | K7o | Q7o | J7o | T7o | 97o | 87o | 77 | 76s | 75s | 74s | 73s | 72s |
| A6o | K6o | Q6o | J6o | T6o | 96o | 86o | 76o | 66 | 65s | 64s | 63s | 62s |
| A5o | K5o | Q5o | J5o | T5o | 95o | 85o | 75o | 65o | 55 | 54s | 53s | 52s |
| A4o | K4o | Q4o | J4o | T4o | 94o | 84o | 74o | 64o | 54o | 44 | 43s | 42s |
| A3o | K3o | Q3o | J3o | T3o | 93o | 83o | 73o | 63o | 53o | 43o | 33 | 32s |
| A2o | K2o | Q2o | J2o | T2o | 92o | 82o | 72o | 62o | 52o | 42o | 32o | 22 |
Which offsuit hands are worth playing?
Big cards, and only big cards. The offsuit hands in PlusEV’s opening ranges, seat by seat:
| Seat | Offsuit hands opened |
|---|---|
| Under the gun | ATo+, KQo; KJo half the time, KTo about a third |
| Hijack | ATo+, KTo+; QJo and QTo about 60% |
| Cutoff | A9o+, KTo+, QTo+, JTo; A8o 62%, A5o 35%, T9o 25% |
| Button | A4o+, K9o+, Q9o+, J9o+, T8o+; K8o 40%, A3o half |
Offsuit connectors below ten-nine never make an opening range from these seats, and no offsuit king below king-eight does. The full grids are in our Texas Hold’em charts, and the best starting hands guide ranks every hand.
Which offsuit hands do players misplay most?
The ones that look strong. Across PlusEV’s 1M+ recorded training decisions, counting only spots where the solver has one clear answer and weighting every difficulty level equally, players choose the right action with ace-jack offsuit 72.1% of the time (9,911 answers), the second most misplayed of all 169 starting hands. Queen-jack offsuit is third (72.4%) and king-jack offsuit tenth (75.0%), with ace-ten and king-ten offsuit close behind.
Suited hands are misplayed more often overall: 83.8% right on average, against 90.1% for offsuit hands, and in 65 of the 78 rank pairs players get the suited version wrong more often than the offsuit one. Most offsuit hands are easy folds, which lifts their average; the mistakes concentrate in the few offsuit broadways that sit near the edge of a range. Weighted by how often each hand is dealt, offsuit hands make up 59.7% of all mistakes, as our poker combos guide shows.
What are the most common mistakes with offsuit hands?
- Playing offsuit broadways from early seats. Queen-jack offsuit is a fold under the gun and an open from the cutoff.
- Treating suited as a reason to play anything. Suitedness adds 2.7 points on average; nine-eight suited is still a fold under the gun.
- Defending offsuit junk from the big blind. King-deuce offsuit gets a good price against a button open and still folds every time in the solver’s defence.
- Misreading the notation. AJs and AJo are different decisions in many spots: one letter can turn a raise into a fold.
Offsuit hands are 70.6% of what you are dealt, and they win only 2.7 points less often than their suited versions against a random hand, yet solver ranges play a fraction as many of them. Play offsuit hands for their big cards, and fold the small ones. The PlusEV preflop trainer drills the hands at the edge of each range, suited and offsuit, until the difference is automatic.
Quick answers
What does offsuit mean in poker?
Your two hole cards are of different suits, like the ace of spades and the king of hearts. The suited version of the same hand has both cards in one suit.
What does the o in AKo mean?
Offsuit. AKo is ace-king of two different suits and AKs is ace-king suited. A hand written without a letter, like AK, means both versions.
What does suited mean in poker?
Both hole cards are the same suit, like the jack and ten of hearts. Suited hands can make a flush with three more cards of that suit, which offsuit hands cannot.
How much better is suited than offsuit?
About 2.7 percentage points of equity against a random hand, averaged over all 78 rank pairs. The gap runs from 1.7 points for ace-king to 3.6 points for three-deuce.
How often are you dealt an offsuit hand?
70.6% of the time. There are 936 offsuit combos among the 1,326 possible two-card hands, against 312 suited combos and 78 pairs.
What are the odds of making a flush with suited cards?
6.4% by the river if you see all five board cards. An offsuit hand makes a flush in either of its suits only 1.85% of the time.
Is ace-king offsuit a good hand?
Yes. It wins 65.4% of the time against a random hand, only 1.7 points less than ace-king suited, and PlusEV's solver ranges open it from every seat.