diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index e871a74eb2..606942bd79 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+6.0.0-dev.473 | 2023-05-02 09:42:19 -0700
+
+  * Fix smith-waterman sorting to follow correct Compare semantics (Tim Wojtulewicz)
+
 6.0.0-dev.470 | 2023-04-28 16:33:46 -0700
 
   * CI: Automatically update opensuse-tumbleweed (Tim Wojtulewicz, Corelight)
diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index d44ee2e2cc..b86fbd067a 100644
--- a/VERSION
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -1 +1 @@
-6.0.0-dev.470
+6.0.0-dev.473
diff --git a/src/SmithWaterman.cc b/src/SmithWaterman.cc
index 7e590b0ccb..a3a01eaf56 100644
--- a/src/SmithWaterman.cc
+++ b/src/SmithWaterman.cc
@@ -172,10 +172,7 @@ bool SubstringCmp::operator()(const Substring* bst1, const Substring* bst2) cons
 		return false;
 		}
 
-	if ( bst1->GetAlignments()[_index].index <= bst2->GetAlignments()[_index].index )
-		return true;
-
-	return false;
+	return (bst1->GetAlignments()[_index].index < bst2->GetAlignments()[_index].index);
 	}
 
 // A node in Smith-Waterman's dynamic programming matrix.  Each node
diff --git a/testing/btest/Baseline/language.smith-waterman-test/output b/testing/btest/Baseline/language.smith-waterman-test/output
index e40358600e..63ece69aeb 100644
--- a/testing/btest/Baseline/language.smith-waterman-test/output
+++ b/testing/btest/Baseline/language.smith-waterman-test/output
@@ -29,5 +29,5 @@ tok 0: Accept (27/0, T)
 tok 1: e^M^JAccept (22/15, T)
 tok 2: Accept (27/29, T)
 xxAAxxAAxx - yyyyyAAyyyyy:
-tok 0: AA (2/5, T)
-tok 1: AA (6/5, T)
+tok 0: AA (6/5, T)
+tok 1: AA (2/5, T)