Double-Suited Hands in PLO: What the Suits Are Worth, Exactly
Every PLO player knows double-suited is better. Almost nobody knows by how much, so here it is exactly, from our 400,000-trial-per-class rankings of all 16,432 hands: A-A-K-K is the 6th-best hand in the game double-suited (70.7% vs a random hand), 82nd single-suited (67.9%), and 334th rainbow (65.1%). Same ranks, 5.6 points of equity and 328 places apart on suits alone.
| Ranks | ds | ss | 3-suit | mono | rainbow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A-A-K-K | 70.7% (#6) | 67.9% (#82) | - | - | 65.1% (#334) |
| A-A-J-T | 70.6% (#7) | 68.0% (#79) | 67.0% (#124) | - | 65.4% (#268) |
| T-9-8-7 | 53.2% (#4,719) | 50.2% (#7,675) | 49.4% (#8,647) | 48.5% (#9,486) | 47.0% (#11,163) |
Three things in that table are worth more than the headline. First, the suit premium is proportionally bigger for speculative hands: T-9-8-7 double-suited is a clearly above-average hand, and the same rundown rainbow is below average - the suits are the difference between a hand and a fold in most seats. Second, look at the monotone column: four cards of one suit ranks below single-suited, because you hold three of your own flush outs. "Suited" means one working pair of suits; stacking more of the same suit subtracts. Third, single-suited splits into sub-classes (which cards share the suit) spanning dozens of ranks - A-A-J-T with the suit on an ace is a different hand than with the suit on the jack-ten.
How often the deal cooperates
Double-suited arrives 13.5% of the time in PLO4. In PLO5 it becomes the most common suit pattern at 36.5%, which is one reason PLO5 standards run higher: a third of every range is double-suited, so the feature stops being a bonus and becomes the baseline. Rainbow, 10.5% of PLO4 deals, is impossible in PLO5.
Why suits are worth more than a few percent
The equity numbers understate the practical gap, and the multiway data shows why: suits are nut-flush potential, and nut outcomes are what survive extra opponents. A double-suited hand also realizes its equity better - it continues on more flops, semi-bluffs more credibly, and wins bigger pots when the flush comes in with the ace than the same ranks win with a naked pair. That is why the solver's full-game EV ranking values suited aces with weak sides above their raw equity rank: the suit is the part of the hand that scales.
The complete ladder for any rank set is in the PLO4 rankings CSV, and you can check any two specific hands against each other in the equity calculator.