--- title: "88 vs A9s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-a9s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-a9s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "Who is ahead, 88 or A9s? 88 leads 54.30% to 45.70% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-ato.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-kjs.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-a9s.md"] --- # 88 vs A9s: preflop equity Who is ahead, 88 or A9s? 88 leads 54.30% to 45.70% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Dealt all in against each other, 88 takes 54.30% of the pot on average and A9s takes the other 45.70%. ## 88 against A9s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for 88 against A9s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 88 | 54.107 | 0.387 | 45.506 | 54.300 | | A9s | 45.506 | 0.387 | 54.107 | 45.700 | We compare a pocket pair with a suited hand. A pair against two higher cards is the classic race: the pair is usually a small favorite or close to even, and each overcard that pairs is a way to take the lead. That is a slim edge: neither hand is far ahead. About 0.39% of boards chop the pot, which is why equity sits slightly above the win figure for both hands. Ranked by equity against a random hand, 88 is number 7 of the 169 starting hands and A9s is number 18. **Boards behind the percentages: 41,095,296 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 88 | 22,235,000 | 159,000 | 18,701,000 | | A9s | 18,701,000 | 159,000 | 22,235,000 | 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 A9s 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 | 1.188 | 1.848 | 2.198 | 0.842 | | A9s | 0.842 | 2.198 | 1.848 | 1.188 | 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 60.50% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) and bottoms out at 52.43% on two-tone flops. 88 stays ahead on all five textures. **88 against A9s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | 88 wins | Ties | A9s wins | 88 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.220 | 53.514 | 0.185 | 46.301 | 53.606 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.689 | 60.145 | 0.710 | 39.145 | 60.500 | | Two-tone | 46.545 | 52.301 | 0.261 | 47.438 | 52.431 | | Monotone | 5.212 | 51.668 | 2.373 | 45.959 | 52.855 | | Paired | 17.334 | 58.570 | 0.317 | 41.113 | 58.729 | 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 A9s holds 62.78%. Facing each other changes that by -14.86 points for 88 and -17.08 points for A9s. **88 and A9s 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 | 54.300 | 69.163 | -14.863 | 0.78510 | | 88, rainbow, ten or higher | 53.606 | 69.163 | -15.557 | 0.77507 | | 88, rainbow, nine or lower | 60.500 | 69.163 | -8.663 | 0.87475 | | 88, two-tone | 52.431 | 69.163 | -16.732 | 0.75808 | | 88, monotone | 52.855 | 69.163 | -16.308 | 0.76421 | | 88, paired | 58.729 | 69.163 | -10.434 | 0.84914 | | A9s, all flops | 45.700 | 62.781 | -17.081 | 0.72793 | | A9s, rainbow, ten or higher | 46.394 | 62.781 | -16.387 | 0.73898 | | A9s, rainbow, nine or lower | 39.500 | 62.781 | -23.281 | 0.62917 | | A9s, two-tone | 47.569 | 62.781 | -15.212 | 0.75770 | | A9s, monotone | 47.145 | 62.781 | -15.636 | 0.75094 | | A9s, paired | 41.271 | 62.781 | -21.510 | 0.65738 | ## Does a shared suit matter? When the hands share a suit, 88 holds 54.48%; when they do not, it holds 54.13%. 88 does better with a shared suit, by 0.35 points. **88 against A9s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | 88 wins | Ties | A9s wins | 88 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 12 | 50.00 | 54.261 | 0.429 | 45.310 | 54.475 | | No shared suit | 12 | 50.00 | 53.953 | 0.345 | 45.702 | 54.126 | ## How often this matchup comes up 88 against A9s is made up of 24 specific-card matchups in one seat order, 0.0015% of the 1,624,350 ordered deals, and 48 counting both seat orders, 0.0030%. ## A worked example Try it with money: two players each put in $100 and the whole board runs out every possible way. 88 averages $108.60 from the $200, up $8.60; A9s averages $91.40, down $8.60. Per 1,000 deals: 88 wins about 541, A9s wins about 455, and about 4 end in a split pot. ## The same matchup from the other side The mirror image, A9s against 88, is 45.70% to 54.30%, and its address redirects to this page. ## Keep exploring Open the calculator with 8s8h against Ad9d 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. - [Open 8s8h against Ad9d in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=8s8h&p2=Ad9d) - [88 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/88.md) - [A9s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a9s.md) - [88 vs ATo](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-ato.md) - [88 vs KJs](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-kjs.md) - [AKs vs A9s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-a9s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## 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. ## Related - [88 vs ATo: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-ato.md) - [88 vs KJs: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-kjs.md) - [AKs vs A9s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-a9s.md)