--- title: "88 vs 44: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-44.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-44" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "88 is a big favorite over 44 before the flop: 81.14% to 18.86% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-j9s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-jto.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-44.md"] --- # 88 vs 44: preflop equity 88 is a big favorite over 44 before the flop: 81.14% to 18.86% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. The exact count puts 88 at 81.14% and 44 at 18.86% when the two hands see all five board cards. ## 88 against 44: the numbers **Exact preflop results for 88 against 44, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 88 | 80.644 | 0.996 | 18.360 | 81.142 | | 44 | 18.360 | 0.996 | 80.644 | 18.858 | 88 meets 44, and both are pocket pairs. Two pairs against each other is a one-way street: the lower pair needs one of its two remaining cards. A gap this wide means 44 is in trouble before the flop and has few good runouts. The tie share is 1.00%: on those boards the pot is chopped and neither hand wins outright. Among the 169 starting hands, 88 is number 7 and 44 is number 48 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 | 49,711,000 | 614,000 | 11,318,000 | | 44 | 11,318,000 | 614,000 | 49,711,000 | The board total is exact, 36 deals at 1,712,304 boards each. Won, tied and lost counts are rounded to the nearest thousand from the five-decimal percentages. **88 against 44 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 | 4.303 | 1.240 | 5.447 | 0.232 | | 44 | 0.232 | 5.447 | 1.240 | 4.303 | The final column gives the least the pot must offer for each unit called for a call to break even at this equity. ## Who is ahead on which flops Across the five flop textures 88's equity moves by 13.57 points, from 72.23% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) to 85.80% on paired flops. 88 stays ahead on all five textures. **88 against 44 by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | 88 wins | Ties | 44 wins | 88 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.844 | 82.176 | 0.601 | 17.223 | 82.476 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.065 | 71.851 | 0.753 | 27.396 | 72.228 | | Two-tone | 46.363 | 79.903 | 0.611 | 19.486 | 80.209 | | Monotone | 5.152 | 74.573 | 2.266 | 23.161 | 75.706 | | Paired | 17.576 | 84.658 | 2.288 | 13.054 | 85.802 | Read the flop types this way: rainbow has three suits, two-tone has two cards of one suit, monotone has three, and paired repeats a rank. ## Compared with a random hand Start from the random-hand figures, 69.16% for 88 and 57.02% for 44. This opponent changes them by +11.98 and -38.16 points. **88 and 44 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 | 81.142 | 69.163 | +11.979 | 1.17320 | | 88, rainbow, ten or higher | 82.476 | 69.163 | +13.313 | 1.19249 | | 88, rainbow, nine or lower | 72.228 | 69.163 | +3.065 | 1.04432 | | 88, two-tone | 80.209 | 69.163 | +11.046 | 1.15971 | | 88, monotone | 75.706 | 69.163 | +6.543 | 1.09460 | | 88, paired | 85.802 | 69.163 | +16.639 | 1.24058 | | 44, all flops | 18.858 | 57.023 | -38.165 | 0.33071 | | 44, rainbow, ten or higher | 17.524 | 57.023 | -39.499 | 0.30731 | | 44, rainbow, nine or lower | 27.772 | 57.023 | -29.251 | 0.48703 | | 44, two-tone | 19.791 | 57.023 | -37.232 | 0.34707 | | 44, monotone | 24.294 | 57.023 | -32.729 | 0.42604 | | 44, paired | 14.198 | 57.023 | -42.825 | 0.24899 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Of the deals of this matchup, 30 share a suit (88 at 81.28%) and 6 do not (80.47%). 88 does better with a shared suit, by 0.81 points. **88 against 44 by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | 88 wins | Ties | 44 wins | 88 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 30 | 83.33 | 80.771 | 1.009 | 18.220 | 81.276 | | No shared suit | 6 | 16.67 | 80.008 | 0.928 | 19.064 | 80.472 | ## How often this matchup comes up The class pair covers 36 combinations of specific cards in a fixed seat order, 0.0022% of 1,624,350, and 72 (0.0044%) in either order. ## A worked example With $100 from each side, the $200 pot is split on average as $162.28 for 88 and $37.72 for 44; the first side gains $62.28 per all-in and the second gives up $62.28. Over a long run, 1,000 deals split into about 806 for 88, 184 for 44 and 10 tied. ## The same matchup from the other side Swap the hands and you get 44 with 18.86% against 88 with 81.14%. We keep one page per matchup, with the better-ranked hand first. ## Keep exploring Open the calculator with 8s8h against 4d4c already entered, a deal with no shared suit, and change any card to try your own hand. The matchups after it each swap one hand for a nearby one in the ranking. - [Open 8s8h against 4d4c in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=8s8h&p2=4d4c) - [88 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/88.md) - [44 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/44.md) - [88 vs J9s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-j9s.md) - [88 vs JTo](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-jto.md) - [AKs vs 44](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-44.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed Each figure is a complete count over boards. Take the 36 specific deals, group them by suit pattern, deal all 1,712,304 boards against each, and compare the two seven-card hands. Equity counts a tie as half a win; the flop rows use every one of a board's ten flops. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [88 vs J9s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-j9s.md) - [88 vs JTo: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-jto.md) - [AKs vs 44: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-44.md)