--- title: "88 vs A4s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-a4s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-a4s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "88 is a big favorite over A4s before the flop: 66.17% to 33.83% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-a3s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-qjo.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-a4s.md"] --- # 88 vs A4s: preflop equity 88 is a big favorite over A4s before the flop: 66.17% to 33.83% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Dealt all in against each other, 88 takes 66.17% of the pot on average and A4s takes the other 33.83%. ## 88 against A4s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for 88 against A4s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 88 | 65.962 | 0.419 | 33.619 | 66.172 | | A4s | 33.619 | 0.419 | 65.962 | 33.828 | 88 is a pocket pair and A4s is a suited hand. The pair is ahead of one card and behind the other, so the board decides how that plays out. A lead of 32.34 points is large but not decisive: A4s still takes about 336 of every 1,000 deals. Of every 100 boards, about 0.42 are split pots, and the equity figures already include them. Among the 169 starting hands, 88 is number 7 and A4s is number 35 by strength against a random hand. **Boards behind the percentages: 41,095,296 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 88 | 27,107,000 | 172,000 | 13,816,000 | | A4s | 13,816,000 | 172,000 | 27,107,000 | Exact total: 24 deals times 1,712,304 boards. The other three counts come from the five-decimal percentages and are rounded to the nearest thousand, so read them as approximate. **88 against A4s 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 | 1.956 | 1.516 | 2.975 | 0.511 | | A4s | 0.511 | 2.975 | 1.516 | 1.956 | 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 Break the boards down by their first three cards and 88 is strongest on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) (76.60%) and weakest on monotone flops (62.38%). 88 stays ahead on all five textures. **88 against A4s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | 88 wins | Ties | A4s wins | 88 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.220 | 65.785 | 0.199 | 34.016 | 65.884 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.689 | 76.194 | 0.803 | 23.003 | 76.596 | | Two-tone | 46.545 | 64.563 | 0.288 | 35.149 | 64.707 | | Monotone | 5.212 | 61.178 | 2.396 | 36.426 | 62.376 | | Paired | 17.334 | 68.055 | 0.374 | 31.571 | 68.242 | Rainbow flops have three suits, two-tone flops repeat one suit, monotone flops are all one suit, and paired flops repeat a rank. ## Compared with a random hand The table below sets each hand against its own random-hand baseline: a change of -2.99 points for 88, from 69.16%, and -25.20 for A4s, from 59.03%. **88 and A4s 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 | 66.172 | 69.163 | -2.991 | 0.95675 | | 88, rainbow, ten or higher | 65.884 | 69.163 | -3.279 | 0.95259 | | 88, rainbow, nine or lower | 76.596 | 69.163 | +7.433 | 1.10747 | | 88, two-tone | 64.707 | 69.163 | -4.456 | 0.93557 | | 88, monotone | 62.376 | 69.163 | -6.787 | 0.90187 | | 88, paired | 68.242 | 69.163 | -0.921 | 0.98668 | | A4s, all flops | 33.828 | 59.034 | -25.206 | 0.57303 | | A4s, rainbow, ten or higher | 34.116 | 59.034 | -24.918 | 0.57790 | | A4s, rainbow, nine or lower | 23.404 | 59.034 | -35.630 | 0.39645 | | A4s, two-tone | 35.293 | 59.034 | -23.741 | 0.59784 | | A4s, monotone | 37.624 | 59.034 | -21.410 | 0.63733 | | A4s, paired | 31.758 | 59.034 | -27.276 | 0.53796 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Looking only at deals where the hands share a suit, 88 has 66.46%; looking only at deals where they do not, 65.88%. 88 does better with a shared suit, by 0.58 points. **88 against A4s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | 88 wins | Ties | A4s wins | 88 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 12 | 50.00 | 66.227 | 0.465 | 33.308 | 66.459 | | No shared suit | 12 | 50.00 | 65.697 | 0.374 | 33.929 | 65.884 | ## How often this matchup comes up This page stands for 24 specific-card matchups (0.0015% of 1,624,350 ordered deals), or 48 once you count the seats both ways (0.0030%). ## A worked example To see what the equity is worth, imagine $100 each in a $200 pot. 88 is worth $132.34 on average (+$32.34); A4s is worth $67.66 (-$32.34). Scaled to 1,000 deals, that is roughly 660 wins for 88, 336 for A4s and 4 chopped pots. ## The same matchup from the other side The reversed view, A4s against 88, shows 33.83% for A4s and 66.17% for 88. It is the same count, so it redirects here. ## Keep exploring The calculator link fills in 8s8h against Ad4d, a deal where the two hands share no suit. Change any card to test your own hand. The neighboring matchups below swap one of the two hands for one of similar strength. - [Open 8s8h against Ad4d in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=8s8h&p2=Ad4d) - [88 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/88.md) - [A4s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a4s.md) - [88 vs A3s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-a3s.md) - [88 vs QJo](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-qjo.md) - [AKs vs A4s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-a4s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed This is an exact count with no sampling. For the 24 ways to deal one 88 and one A4s 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. ## Related - [88 vs A3s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-a3s.md) - [88 vs QJo: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-qjo.md) - [AKs vs A4s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-a4s.md)