--- title: "88 vs 66: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-66.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-66" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "88 is a big favorite over 66 before the flop: 81.44% to 18.56% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-a9s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-ato.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-66.md"] --- # 88 vs 66: preflop equity 88 is a big favorite over 66 before the flop: 81.44% to 18.56% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Dealt all in against each other, 88 takes 81.44% of the pot on average and 66 takes the other 18.56%. ## 88 against 66: the numbers **Exact preflop results for 88 against 66, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 88 | 80.981 | 0.927 | 18.092 | 81.444 | | 66 | 18.092 | 0.927 | 80.981 | 18.556 | Here pocket pairs face each other, 88 on one side and 66 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. That is a heavy lead: 66 needs the board to help it on most runouts and still falls behind far more often than not. About 0.93% of boards chop the pot, which is why equity sits slightly above the win figure for both hands. The hand ranking puts 88 at 7 and 66 at 17 out of 169 starting hands. **Boards behind the percentages: 61,642,944 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 88 | 49,919,000 | 571,000 | 11,152,000 | | 66 | 11,152,000 | 571,000 | 49,919,000 | 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 66 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 | 4.389 | 1.235 | 5.527 | 0.228 | | 66 | 0.228 | 5.527 | 1.235 | 4.389 | The last column is the break-even price: the pot odds a call needs to offer, as a ratio of pot to call. ## Who is ahead on which flops 88 prefers paired flops, where it holds 85.80%, and likes low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) least, where it holds 72.20%. 88 stays ahead on all five textures. **88 against 66 by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | 88 wins | Ties | 66 wins | 88 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.844 | 82.665 | 0.562 | 16.773 | 82.946 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.065 | 71.948 | 0.509 | 27.543 | 72.203 | | Two-tone | 46.363 | 80.312 | 0.542 | 19.146 | 80.583 | | Monotone | 5.152 | 74.876 | 1.997 | 23.127 | 75.874 | | Paired | 17.576 | 84.660 | 2.288 | 13.052 | 85.804 | 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 Against one random hand instead, 88 holds 69.16% and 66 holds 63.29%. Facing each other changes that by +12.28 points for 88 and -44.73 points for 66. **88 and 66 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 | 81.444 | 69.163 | +12.281 | 1.17757 | | 88, rainbow, ten or higher | 82.946 | 69.163 | +13.783 | 1.19928 | | 88, rainbow, nine or lower | 72.203 | 69.163 | +3.040 | 1.04395 | | 88, two-tone | 80.583 | 69.163 | +11.420 | 1.16512 | | 88, monotone | 75.874 | 69.163 | +6.711 | 1.09703 | | 88, paired | 85.804 | 69.163 | +16.641 | 1.24061 | | 66, all flops | 18.556 | 63.285 | -44.729 | 0.29321 | | 66, rainbow, ten or higher | 17.054 | 63.285 | -46.231 | 0.26948 | | 66, rainbow, nine or lower | 27.797 | 63.285 | -35.488 | 0.43924 | | 66, two-tone | 19.417 | 63.285 | -43.868 | 0.30682 | | 66, monotone | 24.126 | 63.285 | -39.159 | 0.38123 | | 66, paired | 14.196 | 63.285 | -49.089 | 0.22432 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Of the deals of this matchup, 30 share a suit (88 at 81.58%) and 6 do not (80.76%). 88 does better with a shared suit, by 0.82 points. **88 against 66 by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | 88 wins | Ties | 66 wins | 88 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 30 | 83.33 | 81.110 | 0.942 | 17.948 | 81.581 | | No shared suit | 6 | 16.67 | 80.337 | 0.851 | 18.812 | 80.762 | ## How often this matchup comes up 88 against 66 is made up of 36 specific-card matchups in one seat order, 0.0022% of the 1,624,350 ordered deals, and 72 counting both seat orders, 0.0044%. ## A worked example Take a $200 pot built from $100 each. 88's equity of 81.44% is worth $162.88, a $62.88 edge, and 66's 18.56% is worth $37.12, which is $62.88 under its stake. A thousand deals look like this: 88 takes 810, 66 takes 181, 9 are ties. ## The same matchup from the other side The mirror image, 66 against 88, is 18.56% to 81.44%, and its address redirects to this page. ## Keep exploring 8s8h against 6d6c 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. - [Open 8s8h against 6d6c in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=8s8h&p2=6d6c) - [88 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/88.md) - [66 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/66.md) - [88 vs A9s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-a9s.md) - [88 vs ATo](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-ato.md) - [AKs vs 66](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-66.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed The page is built from a full enumeration: 1,712,304 boards, every suit pattern of the 36 specific deals, both seven-card hands evaluated. A tie is worth half a win to each hand, and a board is tallied under each of its ten possible flops for the texture rows. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [88 vs A9s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-a9s.md) - [88 vs ATo: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-ato.md) - [AKs vs 66: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-66.md)