88
79.50%
Wins 79.02%, ties 0.97%
53s
20.50%
Wins 20.01%, ties 0.97%
88 against 53s: the numbers
| Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 88 | 79.019 | 0.969 | 20.012 | 79.504 |
| 53s | 20.012 | 0.969 | 79.019 | 20.496 |
We compare a pocket pair with a suited hand. The pair outranks both of the other hand's cards, which is why the pair is a strong favorite.
88 is the clear favorite, though 53s gets there on roughly one board in 5. Split pots make up 0.97% of the boards, and both equity figures count them as half a win each.
By strength against a random hand, 88 holds place 7 of 169 and 53s holds place 146.
| Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about |
|---|---|---|---|
| 88 | 32,473,000 | 398,000 | 8,224,000 |
| 53s | 8,224,000 | 398,000 | 32,473,000 |
The total is exact: 24 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.
| Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 88 | 3.879 | 1.266 | 4.997 | 0.258 |
| 53s | 0.258 | 4.997 | 1.266 | 3.879 |
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
If you know the kind of flop that came, the numbers shift: 88 holds 83.55% on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better and 70.04% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower). 88 stays ahead on all five textures.
| Flop | Share of flops | 88 wins | Ties | 53s wins | 88 equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.844 | 83.262 | 0.582 | 16.156 | 83.553 |
| Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.065 | 69.659 | 0.761 | 29.580 | 70.040 |
| Two-tone | 46.545 | 77.532 | 0.573 | 21.895 | 77.819 |
| Monotone | 5.212 | 72.921 | 2.685 | 24.394 | 74.263 |
| Paired | 17.334 | 81.254 | 2.154 | 16.592 | 82.331 |
A rainbow flop shows three suits, a two-tone flop repeats one suit, a monotone flop is a single suit, and a paired flop repeats a rank.
Compared with a random hand
Start from the random-hand figures, 69.16% for 88 and 39.69% for 53s. This opponent changes them by +10.34 and -19.19 points.
| Case | Equity here | Against a random hand | Change in points | Times the random-hand equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 88, all flops | 79.504 | 69.163 | +10.341 | 1.14952 |
| 88, rainbow, ten or higher | 83.553 | 69.163 | +14.390 | 1.20806 |
| 88, rainbow, nine or lower | 70.040 | 69.163 | +0.877 | 1.01268 |
| 88, two-tone | 77.819 | 69.163 | +8.656 | 1.12515 |
| 88, monotone | 74.263 | 69.163 | +5.100 | 1.07374 |
| 88, paired | 82.331 | 69.163 | +13.168 | 1.19039 |
| 53s, all flops | 20.496 | 39.693 | -19.197 | 0.51636 |
| 53s, rainbow, ten or higher | 16.447 | 39.693 | -23.246 | 0.41436 |
| 53s, rainbow, nine or lower | 29.960 | 39.693 | -9.733 | 0.75479 |
| 53s, two-tone | 22.181 | 39.693 | -17.512 | 0.55881 |
| 53s, monotone | 25.737 | 39.693 | -13.956 | 0.64840 |
| 53s, paired | 17.669 | 39.693 | -22.024 | 0.44514 |
Does a shared suit matter?
Two kinds of deal exist here. In 12 of them the hands share a suit and 88 holds 80.09%. In 12 they do not, and it holds 78.92%. 88 does better with a shared suit, by 1.17 points.
| Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | 88 wins | Ties | 53s wins | 88 equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Share a suit | 12 | 50.00 | 79.580 | 1.011 | 19.409 | 80.086 |
| No shared suit | 12 | 50.00 | 78.458 | 0.927 | 20.615 | 78.922 |
How often this matchup comes up
Exactly 24 specific deals fit this matchup in one seat order, which is 0.0015% of 1,624,350; both orders together give 48, or 0.0030%.
A worked example
With $100 from each side, the $200 pot is split on average as $159.00 for 88 and $41.00 for 53s; the first side gains $59.00 per all-in and the second gives up $59.00.
Think in thousands: about 790 of 1,000 go to 88, about 200 go to 53s, and about 10 are chopped.
The same matchup from the other side
53s against 88 adds nothing new: it is 20.50% for 53s and 79.50% for 88, the same figures reversed.
Keep exploring
Open the calculator with 8s8h against 5d3d 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.
How this was computed
This is an exact count with no sampling. For the 24 ways to deal one 88 and one 53s without reusing a card, grouped by suit pattern, every one of the 1,712,304 possible boards is dealt and both seven-card hands are compared. A tie counts as half a win in the equity column, and each board is counted once under each of its ten three-card flops.
Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used.
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