88 vs A5s: preflop equity

If 88 and A5s get all the chips in before the flop, 88 owns 65.94% of the pot in the long run and A5s owns 34.06%.

88

65.94%

Wins 65.73%, ties 0.41%

A5s

34.06%

Wins 33.86%, ties 0.41%

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

88 against A5s: the numbers

Exact preflop results for 88 against A5s, in percent
HandWinsTiesLosesEquity
8865.7340.41433.85265.941
A5s33.8520.41465.73434.059

We compare a pocket pair with 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 31.88 points is large but not decisive: A5s still takes about 339 of every 1,000 deals. Split pots make up 0.41% 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 A5s holds place 30.

Boards behind the percentages: 41,095,296 counted in all
HandBoards won, aboutBoards tied, aboutBoards lost, about
8827,014,000170,00013,912,000
A5s13,912,000170,00027,014,000

24 specific deals times 1,712,304 boards gives the exact total. The won, tied and lost counts are approximations from the five-decimal percentages, rounded to the nearest thousand.

88 against A5s read as odds
HandEquity as odds (to 1)Wins one deal inLoses one deal inPot odds needed to call (to 1)
881.9361.5212.9540.517
A5s0.5172.9541.5211.936

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

Split by what the flop looks like, 88 peaks at 75.42% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) and bottoms out at 62.16% on monotone flops. 88 stays ahead on all five textures.

88 against A5s by flop texture, in percent
FlopShare of flops88 winsTiesA5s wins88 equity
Rainbow, ten or higher25.22065.6790.19934.12265.778
Rainbow, nine or lower5.68975.0370.75924.20475.416
Two-tone46.54564.2910.28235.42764.432
Monotone5.21260.9652.39336.64262.162
Paired17.33468.0690.37431.55768.256

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

Against one random hand instead, 88 holds 69.16% and A5s holds 59.92%. Facing each other changes that by -3.22 points for 88 and -25.86 points for A5s.

88 and A5s here compared with each against a random hand, in percent
CaseEquity hereAgainst a random handChange in pointsTimes the random-hand equity
88, all flops65.94169.163-3.2220.95341
88, rainbow, ten or higher65.77869.163-3.3850.95106
88, rainbow, nine or lower75.41669.163+6.2531.09041
88, two-tone64.43269.163-4.7310.93160
88, monotone62.16269.163-7.0010.89878
88, paired68.25669.163-0.9070.98689
A5s, all flops34.05959.923-25.8640.56838
A5s, rainbow, ten or higher34.22259.923-25.7010.57110
A5s, rainbow, nine or lower24.58459.923-35.3390.41026
A5s, two-tone35.56859.923-24.3550.59356
A5s, monotone37.83859.923-22.0850.63144
A5s, paired31.74459.923-28.1790.52975

Does a shared suit matter?

Does suit overlap move the numbers? 88 has 66.22% when the hands share a suit and 65.67% when they do not. 88 does better with a shared suit, by 0.55 points.

88 against A5s by suit overlap, in percent
DealsSpecific dealsShare of deals88 winsTiesA5s wins88 equity
Share a suit1250.0065.9880.45933.55366.217
No shared suit1250.0065.4800.36934.15165.665

How often this matchup comes up

Counting specific cards, 88 against A5s appears in 24 of the 1,624,350 ordered heads-up deals (0.0015%), and in 48 when the seats are swapped too (0.0030%).

A worked example

Take a $200 pot built from $100 each. 88's equity of 65.94% is worth $131.88, a $31.88 edge, and A5s' 34.06% is worth $68.12, which is $31.88 under its stake.

Run 1,000 deals and the tally comes out near 657 for 88, 339 for A5s and 4 ties.

The same matchup from the other side

Read it from the other side: A5s against 88 is the same matchup with the numbers swapped, so A5s holds 34.06% and 88 holds 65.94%. That address sends you back to this page.

8s8h against Ad5d 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.

How this was computed

All 1,712,304 five-card boards are dealt for every suit pattern among the 24 specific deals of 88 against A5s, and both hands are scored on each. That is a full count, so the percentages are exact. Ties are half a win each, and each board appears once per flop it contains.

Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used.

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