--- title: "88 vs AKo: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-ako.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-ako" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "Who is ahead, 88 or AKo? 88 leads 55.16% to 44.84% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-ats.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-aqo.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-ako.md"] --- # 88 vs AKo: preflop equity Who is ahead, 88 or AKo? 88 leads 55.16% to 44.84% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Before any board card is dealt, 88 holds 55.16% equity against AKo, which leaves AKo with 44.84%. ## 88 against AKo: the numbers **Exact preflop results for 88 against AKo, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 88 | 54.973 | 0.376 | 44.651 | 55.161 | | AKo | 44.651 | 0.376 | 54.973 | 44.839 | We compare a pocket pair with an offsuit hand. This is a pair against two overcards, a matchup that stays close because the other hand only needs one of its ranks to appear. A 10.32 point lead is real, and AKo still takes about 446 of every 1,000 deals outright. Ties are part of the picture: 0.38% of boards end in a split pot, and each side counts that as half a win. Ranked by equity against a random hand, 88 is number 7 of the 169 starting hands and AKo is number 12. **Boards behind the percentages: 123,285,888 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 88 | 67,774,000 | 464,000 | 55,048,000 | | AKo | 55,048,000 | 464,000 | 67,774,000 | 72 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 AKo 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 | 1.230 | 1.819 | 2.240 | 0.813 | | AKo | 0.813 | 2.240 | 1.819 | 1.230 | In the last column, a pot-to-call ratio at or above the figure makes a call break even or better at this equity. ## Who is ahead on which flops Across the five flop textures 88's equity moves by 32.06 points, from 47.97% on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better to 80.03% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower). Watch for rainbow flops topped by a ten or better: on those flops AKo holds the better equity. **88 against AKo by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | 88 wins | Ties | AKo wins | 88 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 24.717 | 47.885 | 0.161 | 51.954 | 47.966 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 6.314 | 79.578 | 0.906 | 19.516 | 80.031 | | Two-tone | 46.485 | 54.010 | 0.300 | 45.690 | 54.160 | | Monotone | 5.151 | 50.782 | 1.695 | 47.523 | 51.629 | | Paired | 17.333 | 59.949 | 0.301 | 39.750 | 60.100 | 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 Each hand has a baseline against a random hand: 69.16% for 88, 65.32% for AKo. Here the change is -14.00 and -20.48 points. **88 and AKo 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 | 55.161 | 69.163 | -14.002 | 0.79755 | | 88, rainbow, ten or higher | 47.966 | 69.163 | -21.197 | 0.69352 | | 88, rainbow, nine or lower | 80.031 | 69.163 | +10.868 | 1.15714 | | 88, two-tone | 54.160 | 69.163 | -15.003 | 0.78308 | | 88, monotone | 51.629 | 69.163 | -17.534 | 0.74648 | | 88, paired | 60.100 | 69.163 | -9.063 | 0.86896 | | AKo, all flops | 44.839 | 65.320 | -20.481 | 0.68645 | | AKo, rainbow, ten or higher | 52.034 | 65.320 | -13.286 | 0.79660 | | AKo, rainbow, nine or lower | 19.969 | 65.320 | -45.351 | 0.30571 | | AKo, two-tone | 45.840 | 65.320 | -19.480 | 0.70178 | | AKo, monotone | 48.371 | 65.320 | -16.949 | 0.74052 | | AKo, paired | 39.900 | 65.320 | -25.420 | 0.61084 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Two kinds of deal exist here. In 60 of them the hands share a suit and 88 holds 55.08%. In 12 they do not, and it holds 55.57%. 88 does better with no shared suit, by 0.49 points. **88 against AKo by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | 88 wins | Ties | AKo wins | 88 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 60 | 83.33 | 54.884 | 0.392 | 44.724 | 55.080 | | No shared suit | 12 | 16.67 | 55.421 | 0.296 | 44.283 | 55.569 | ## How often this matchup comes up This page stands for 72 specific-card matchups (0.0044% of 1,624,350 ordered deals), or 144 once you count the seats both ways (0.0089%). ## A worked example Say each player puts $100 in before the flop, making a $200 pot. On average 88 takes back $110.32 of it, which is $10.32 more than it put in, and AKo takes back $89.68, $10.32 less than it put in. A thousand deals look like this: 88 takes 550, AKo takes 446, 4 are ties. ## The same matchup from the other side AKo versus 88 is this same page seen from the other hand: 44.84% for AKo, 55.16% for 88. ## Keep exploring The calculator link fills in 8s8h against AdKc, 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 AdKc in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=8s8h&p2=AdKc) - [88 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/88.md) - [AKo combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/ako.md) - [88 vs ATs](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-ats.md) - [88 vs AQo](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-aqo.md) - [AKs vs AKo](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-ako.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed We counted every case. Each suit pattern of the 72 specific 88 against AKo deals meets all 1,712,304 boards, and the better five-card hand wins; a split pot is half a win each. The flop table reads each board under all ten of its three-card flops. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [88 vs ATs: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-ats.md) - [88 vs AQo: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-aqo.md) - [AKs vs AKo: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-ako.md)