88 vs 33: preflop equity

81.62%

Wins 81.11%, ties 1.02%

18.38%

Wins 17.87%, ties 1.02%

Equity counts a tie as half a win. Exact over every board.

88 against 33: the numbers

Exact preflop results for 88 against 33, in percent
Hand	Wins	Ties	Loses	Equity
88	81.109	1.022	17.869	81.620
33	17.869	1.022	81.109	18.380

Here pocket pairs face each other, 88 on one side and 33 on the other. A pair against a smaller pair is the classic crush: the smaller pair needs one of its two remaining cards to make a set.

88 is a big favorite here before anyone sees a flop. Ties are part of the picture: 1.02% of boards end in a split pot, and each side counts that as half a win.

Among the 169 starting hands, 88 is number 7 and 33 is number 66 by strength against a random hand.

Boards behind the percentages: 61,642,944 counted in all
Hand	Boards won, about	Boards tied, about	Boards lost, about
88	49,998,000	630,000	11,015,000
33	11,015,000	630,000	49,998,000

The total is exact: 36 specific deals times 1,712,304 boards. The three counts are approximate, worked out from the percentages to five decimals and rounded to the nearest thousand.

88 against 33 read as odds
Hand	Equity as odds (to 1)	Wins one deal in	Loses one deal in	Pot odds needed to call (to 1)
88	4.441	1.233	5.596	0.225
33	0.225	5.596	1.233	4.441

In the last column, a pot-to-call ratio at or above the figure makes a call break even or better at this equity.

Who is ahead on which flops

Across the five flop textures 88's equity moves by 11.82 points, from 74.21% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) to 86.03% on paired flops. 88 stays ahead on all five textures.

88 against 33 by flop texture, in percent
Flop	Share of flops	88 wins	Ties	33 wins	88 equity
Rainbow, ten or higher	25.844	82.440	0.601	16.959	82.741
Rainbow, nine or lower	5.065	73.776	0.863	25.361	74.208
Two-tone	46.363	80.420	0.628	18.952	80.734
Monotone	5.152	74.964	2.514	22.522	76.221
Paired	17.576	84.883	2.288	12.829	86.027

Flop types: rainbow means three different suits, two-tone means one suit twice, monotone means one suit three times, paired means a repeated rank.

Compared with a random hand

Start from the random-hand figures, 69.16% for 88 and 53.69% for 33. This opponent changes them by +12.46 and -35.31 points.

88 and 33 here compared with each against a random hand, in percent
Case	Equity here	Against a random hand	Change in points	Times the random-hand equity
88, all flops	81.620	69.163	+12.457	1.18011
88, rainbow, ten or higher	82.741	69.163	+13.578	1.19632
88, rainbow, nine or lower	74.208	69.163	+5.045	1.07294
88, two-tone	80.734	69.163	+11.571	1.16730
88, monotone	76.221	69.163	+7.058	1.10205
88, paired	86.027	69.163	+16.864	1.24383
33, all flops	18.380	53.693	-35.313	0.34232
33, rainbow, ten or higher	17.259	53.693	-36.434	0.32144
33, rainbow, nine or lower	25.792	53.693	-27.901	0.48036
33, two-tone	19.266	53.693	-34.427	0.35882
33, monotone	23.779	53.693	-29.914	0.44287
33, paired	13.973	53.693	-39.720	0.26024

Does a shared suit matter?

Looking only at deals where the hands share a suit, 88 has 81.75%; looking only at deals where they do not, 80.95%. 88 does better with a shared suit, by 0.80 points.

88 against 33 by suit overlap, in percent
Deals	Specific deals	Share of deals	88 wins	Ties	33 wins	88 equity
Share a suit	30	83.33	81.238	1.033	17.729	81.754
No shared suit	6	16.67	80.464	0.967	18.569	80.947

How often this matchup comes up

Counting specific cards, 88 against 33 appears in 36 of the 1,624,350 ordered heads-up deals (0.0022%), and in 72 when the seats are swapped too (0.0044%).

A worked example

With $100 from each side, the $200 pot is split on average as $163.24 for 88 and $36.76 for 33; the first side gains $63.24 per all-in and the second gives up $63.24.

Per 1,000 deals: 88 wins about 811, 33 wins about 179, and about 10 end in a split pot.

The same matchup from the other side

One page covers both views. From 33's side the equity is 18.38%, and from 88's side it is 81.62%.

8s8h against 3d3c is a ready-made deal for the calculator, with no suit in common between the hands. The neighboring matchups below replace one hand with another of similar strength.

How this was computed

Nothing here is simulated. The 36 deals of 88 against 33 fall into a few suit patterns, each dealt against all 1,712,304 boards, with both best five-card hands compared on every board. Ties give each hand half a win, and the flop rows count a board under each of its ten flops.

Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used.

Bring your own hands to a session

Review the spots you actually play against these numbers in a Game Assessment, and leave with a one-page written plan.

Book a session