88 vs 97s: preflop equity

Counting every board, the equity split is 66.76% for 88 and 33.24% for 97s, so 88 leads by 33.52 points.

88

66.76%

Wins 66.41%, ties 0.71%

97s

33.24%

Wins 32.88%, ties 0.71%

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

88 against 97s: the numbers

Exact preflop results for 88 against 97s, in percent
HandWinsTiesLosesEquity
8866.4060.70732.88766.760
97s32.8870.70766.40633.240

We compare a pocket pair with a suited hand. One of the other hand's cards outranks the pair and one is below it, which makes this a closer race than a pair against two small cards.

88 is well ahead, and 97s needs a specific kind of board to catch up. Ties are 0.71% of the outcomes here; each tied board gives both hands half the pot.

Place 7 of 169 belongs to 88 and place 94 belongs to 97s in the ranking against a random hand.

Boards behind the percentages: 41,095,296 counted in all
HandBoards won, aboutBoards tied, aboutBoards lost, about
8827,290,000291,00013,515,000
97s13,515,000291,00027,290,000

The board total is exact, 24 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 97s read as odds
HandEquity as odds (to 1)Wins one deal inLoses one deal inPot odds needed to call (to 1)
882.0081.5063.0410.498
97s0.4983.0411.5062.008

The last column is the smallest pot odds, written as a pot-to-call ratio, at which a call breaks even with this equity.

Who is ahead on which flops

Across the five flop textures 88's equity moves by 9.98 points, from 60.14% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) to 70.12% on paired flops. 88 stays ahead on all five textures.

88 against 97s by flop texture, in percent
FlopShare of flops88 winsTies97s wins88 equity
Rainbow, ten or higher25.84469.5750.44229.98369.796
Rainbow, nine or lower5.06559.9650.34539.69060.137
Two-tone46.54564.8390.40234.75965.040
Monotone5.21261.0962.49236.41262.342
Paired17.33469.3691.49229.13970.115

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

How much does the opponent matter? Compared with its random-hand 69.16%, 88 changes by -2.40 points, and 97s, from 49.12%, by -15.88.

88 and 97s here compared with each against a random hand, in percent
CaseEquity hereAgainst a random handChange in pointsTimes the random-hand equity
88, all flops66.76069.163-2.4030.96526
88, rainbow, ten or higher69.79669.163+0.6331.00915
88, rainbow, nine or lower60.13769.163-9.0260.86950
88, two-tone65.04069.163-4.1230.94039
88, monotone62.34269.163-6.8210.90138
88, paired70.11569.163+0.9521.01376
97s, all flops33.24049.118-15.8780.67674
97s, rainbow, ten or higher30.20449.118-18.9140.61493
97s, rainbow, nine or lower39.86349.118-9.2550.81158
97s, two-tone34.96049.118-14.1580.71176
97s, monotone37.65849.118-11.4600.76668
97s, paired29.88549.118-19.2330.60843

Does a shared suit matter?

Does suit overlap move the numbers? 88 has 66.97% when the hands share a suit and 66.55% when they do not. 88 does better with a shared suit, by 0.42 points.

88 against 97s by suit overlap, in percent
DealsSpecific dealsShare of deals88 winsTies97s wins88 equity
Share a suit1250.0066.6010.74732.65266.974
No shared suit1250.0066.2120.66733.12166.545

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

Worked example: both players commit $100, so $200 sits in the middle. Over every board, 88's average share is $133.52 (a gain of $33.52) and 97s' is $66.48 (a loss of $33.52).

Think in thousands: about 664 of 1,000 go to 88, about 329 go to 97s, and about 7 are chopped.

The same matchup from the other side

The reversed view, 97s against 88, shows 33.24% for 97s and 66.76% for 88. It is the same count, so it redirects here.

Open the calculator with 8s8h against 9d7d 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

Each figure is a complete count over boards. Take the 24 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.

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