--- title: "88 vs A6s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-a6s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-a6s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "88 is a big favorite over A6s before the flop: 67.54% to 32.46% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-kto.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-qts.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-a6s.md"] --- # 88 vs A6s: preflop equity 88 is a big favorite over A6s before the flop: 67.54% to 32.46% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Averaged over every possible board, 88 is ahead of A6s by 35.08 points of equity, 67.54% to 32.46%. ## 88 against A6s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for 88 against A6s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 88 | 67.348 | 0.377 | 32.275 | 67.536 | | A6s | 32.275 | 0.377 | 67.348 | 32.464 | 88, a pocket pair, plays A6s, 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 A6s needs a specific kind of board to catch up. Of every 100 boards, about 0.38 are split pots, and the equity figures already include them. Among the 169 starting hands, 88 is number 7 and A6s is number 31 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 | 27,677,000 | 155,000 | 13,264,000 | | A6s | 13,264,000 | 155,000 | 27,677,000 | 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 A6s 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 | 2.080 | 1.485 | 3.098 | 0.481 | | A6s | 0.481 | 3.098 | 1.485 | 2.080 | 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 The flop changes the picture. 88 does best on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower), at 80.25%, and worst on monotone flops, at 63.32%. 88 stays ahead on all five textures, but the swing between them is large, so how the flop looks matters a great deal. **88 against A6s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | 88 wins | Ties | A6s wins | 88 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.220 | 66.883 | 0.165 | 32.952 | 66.965 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.689 | 79.920 | 0.652 | 19.428 | 80.246 | | Two-tone | 46.545 | 65.997 | 0.237 | 33.766 | 66.116 | | Monotone | 5.212 | 62.136 | 2.358 | 35.506 | 63.315 | | Paired | 17.334 | 69.092 | 0.374 | 30.534 | 69.279 | 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 Relative to a random opponent, 88 changes by -1.62 points (baseline 69.16%) and A6s by -27.45 points (baseline 59.91%). **88 and A6s 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 | 67.536 | 69.163 | -1.627 | 0.97648 | | 88, rainbow, ten or higher | 66.965 | 69.163 | -2.198 | 0.96822 | | 88, rainbow, nine or lower | 80.246 | 69.163 | +11.083 | 1.16024 | | 88, two-tone | 66.116 | 69.163 | -3.047 | 0.95594 | | 88, monotone | 63.315 | 69.163 | -5.848 | 0.91545 | | 88, paired | 69.279 | 69.163 | +0.116 | 1.00168 | | A6s, all flops | 32.464 | 59.906 | -27.442 | 0.54192 | | A6s, rainbow, ten or higher | 33.035 | 59.906 | -26.871 | 0.55145 | | A6s, rainbow, nine or lower | 19.754 | 59.906 | -40.152 | 0.32975 | | A6s, two-tone | 33.884 | 59.906 | -26.022 | 0.56562 | | A6s, monotone | 36.685 | 59.906 | -23.221 | 0.61238 | | A6s, paired | 30.721 | 59.906 | -29.185 | 0.51282 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Of the deals of this matchup, 12 share a suit (88 at 67.82%) and 12 do not (67.25%). 88 does better with a shared suit, by 0.57 points. **88 against A6s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | 88 wins | Ties | A6s wins | 88 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 12 | 50.00 | 67.614 | 0.420 | 31.966 | 67.824 | | No shared suit | 12 | 50.00 | 67.082 | 0.333 | 32.585 | 67.248 | ## How often this matchup comes up How often does it happen? 24 of the 1,624,350 ordered deals (0.0015%) are 88 against A6s, and 48 (0.0030%) if either hand may sit in either seat. ## A worked example To see what the equity is worth, imagine $100 each in a $200 pot. 88 is worth $135.08 on average (+$35.08); A6s is worth $64.92 (-$35.08). Scaled to 1,000 deals, that is roughly 673 wins for 88, 323 for A6s and 4 chopped pots. ## The same matchup from the other side A6s against 88 adds nothing new: it is 32.46% for A6s and 67.54% for 88, the same figures reversed. ## Keep exploring Try 8s8h against Ad6d in the calculator: the hands share no suit, and every card can be changed. The links after it are the closest matchups in the ranking. - [Open 8s8h against Ad6d in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=8s8h&p2=Ad6d) - [88 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/88.md) - [A6s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a6s.md) - [88 vs KTo](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-kto.md) - [88 vs QTs](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-qts.md) - [AKs vs A6s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-a6s.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 A6s 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 KTo: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-kto.md) - [88 vs QTs: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-qts.md) - [AKs vs A6s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-a6s.md)