AA vs 72o: Who Wins? Exact Odds
AA beats 72o about 88.2% of the time; the worst starting hand in poker still wins 11.8% — roughly 1 in 8.5. "Even seven-deuce gets there sometimes" is not folklore, it's 11.8%.
Win, tie, loss
Share of all possible runouts across every suit combination (72 combo pairs). Equity adds half the ties to each side: AA 88.2%, 72o 11.8%.
Equity by suit configuration
AA vs 72o88.2% / 11.8%
| Suit configuration | Combos | AA equity | 72o equity |
|---|---|---|---|
A♠A♥ vs 7♠2♦ 7♠ shares the ace's suit | 24 | 88.21% | 11.79% |
A♠A♥ vs 7♦2♠ 2♠ shares the ace's suit | 24 | 88.19% | 11.81% |
A♠A♥ vs 7♠2♥ 7♠ shares the ace's suit; 2♥ shares the ace's suit | 12 | 88.98% | 11.02% |
A♠A♥ vs 7♦2♣ no shared suits — every backdoor flush is live | 12 | 87.42% | 12.58% |
| All AA vs 72o combos | 72 | 88.20% | 11.80% |
AA vs 72s84.0% / 16.0%for comparison
| Suit configuration | Combos | AA equity | 72s equity |
|---|---|---|---|
A♠A♥ vs 7♠2♠ A♠ blocks one card of 72's flush suit | 12 | 84.61% | 15.39% |
A♠A♥ vs 7♦2♦ no 72 flush-suit card in the other hand — the flush draw is fully live | 12 | 83.30% | 16.70% |
| All AA vs 72s combos | 24 | 83.96% | 16.04% |
Each row is a suit-isomorphism class: relabeling the four suits doesn't change equity, so every combo in a row has the identical, exactly-enumerated number. “Combos” counts the hand-vs-hand combinations the row represents.
Why the worst hand still wins 1 in 8.5
72o's cards are terrible, but against aces they are live: pairing both of them (two pair), spiking trips, or backing into a low straight all win the pot outright. Compare AA vs AK, where pairing either card changes nothing. Live rags beat dominated broadways — which is exactly why "it's only a 8-to-1 shot" is both true and no comfort at all when the deuces pair up on the river.
- 72o cracks aces about 1 in 8.5 all-ins. Run the meme matchup 100 times and the deuce-seven wins about 12 of them — rare enough to sting, common enough that you will see it.
- 72 suited does a little better: 16.0% vs 11.8% for offsuit. The flush draw adds 4.2 points, and one ace sharing the suit clips it (see the configuration table).
- Here's the twist: AKo wins only 6.8% against aces — less than 72o's 11.8%. Seven-deuce's two ugly-but-live cards outperform ace-king's dominated broadways in this one spot.
How it was calculated
Exact enumeration, not simulation: for every suit configuration above, all 1,712,304 possible five-card boards were dealt and both hands scored with app/lib/poker-eval.js — the same 7-card evaluator behind /tools/odds-calculator. Ties split the pot, so equity is win% plus half the tie%. Computed 2026-07-27.
Don't take our word for it — run AA vs 72o yourself in the odds calculator and watch the Monte Carlo estimate converge on these numbers.
Frequently asked questions
Can 72o beat pocket aces?+
Yes — 11.8% of the time, about 1 in 8.5. Its wins come from two pair, trips, straights (7-6-5-4-3 territory) and the occasional runner-runner surprise. All figures from exact enumeration of every possible board.
What are the odds AA loses to 72o all-in preflop?+
AA wins 88.0% of boards outright, loses 11.6%, and chops 0.4% — total pot equity 88.2% vs 11.8%. Suited 72 improves the underdog to 16.0%.
Is 72o really the worst hand in poker?+
It's the standard pick: the lowest two ranks that can't make a straight together (7 and 2 are too far apart) with no suit help. Ironically, against exactly AA it beats several "good" hands — dominated ones like AK (6.8%) — because both of its cards are live.