88 vs AKs: preflop equity

Averaged over every possible board, 88 is ahead of AKs by 4.96 points of equity, 52.48% to 47.52%.

88

52.48%

Wins 52.28%, ties 0.40%

AKs

47.52%

Wins 47.32%, ties 0.40%

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

88 against AKs: the numbers

Exact preflop results for 88 against AKs, in percent
HandWinsTiesLosesEquity
8852.2770.39747.32652.476
AKs47.3260.39752.27747.524

We compare a pocket pair with a suited 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.

That is a slim edge: neither hand is far ahead. The tie share is 0.40%: on those boards the pot is chopped and neither hand wins outright.

Among the 169 starting hands, 88 is number 7 and AKs is number 8 by strength against a random hand.

Boards behind the percentages: 41,095,296 counted in all
HandBoards won, aboutBoards tied, aboutBoards lost, about
8821,483,000163,00019,449,000
AKs19,449,000163,00021,483,000

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 AKs read as odds
HandEquity as odds (to 1)Wins one deal inLoses one deal inPot odds needed to call (to 1)
881.1041.9132.1130.906
AKs0.9062.1131.9131.104

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

Across the five flop textures 88's equity moves by 30.85 points, from 46.48% on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better to 77.33% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower). 88 is the favorite overall but falls behind on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better.

88 against AKs by flop texture, in percent
FlopShare of flops88 winsTiesAKs wins88 equity
Rainbow, ten or higher24.59546.4050.15453.44146.482
Rainbow, nine or lower6.31476.8990.86822.23377.333
Two-tone46.54550.3750.27549.35050.513
Monotone5.21250.3772.38147.24251.568
Paired17.33457.3210.30142.37857.472

Flop types: rainbow means three different suits, two-tone means one suit twice, monotone means one suit three times, paired means a repeated rank.

Compared with a random hand

How much does the opponent matter? Compared with its random-hand 69.16%, 88 changes by -16.68 points, and AKs, from 67.05%, by -19.53.

88 and AKs here compared with each against a random hand, in percent
CaseEquity hereAgainst a random handChange in pointsTimes the random-hand equity
88, all flops52.47669.163-16.6870.75873
88, rainbow, ten or higher46.48269.163-22.6810.67206
88, rainbow, nine or lower77.33369.163+8.1701.11813
88, two-tone50.51369.163-18.6500.73035
88, monotone51.56869.163-17.5950.74560
88, paired57.47269.163-11.6910.83096
AKs, all flops47.52467.045-19.5210.70884
AKs, rainbow, ten or higher53.51867.045-13.5270.79824
AKs, rainbow, nine or lower22.66767.045-44.3780.33809
AKs, two-tone49.48767.045-17.5580.73812
AKs, monotone48.43267.045-18.6130.72238
AKs, paired42.52867.045-24.5170.63432

Does a shared suit matter?

Suit overlap shows up in the numbers. With a suit in common 88 has 52.66% equity, and with none in common it has 52.29%. 88 does better with a shared suit, by 0.37 points.

88 against AKs by suit overlap, in percent
DealsSpecific dealsShare of deals88 winsTiesAKs wins88 equity
Share a suit1250.0052.4430.44247.11552.664
No shared suit1250.0052.1120.35247.53652.288

How often this matchup comes up

The class pair covers 24 combinations of specific cards in a fixed seat order, 0.0015% of 1,624,350, and 48 (0.0030%) in either order.

A worked example

Worked example: both players commit $100, so $200 sits in the middle. Over every board, 88's average share is $104.96 (a gain of $4.96) and AKs' is $95.04 (a loss of $4.96).

A thousand deals look like this: 88 takes 523, AKs takes 473, 4 are ties.

The same matchup from the other side

If you came looking for AKs against 88, the numbers are the same with the hands swapped: 47.52% and 52.48%.

Open the calculator with 8s8h against AdKd 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.

How this was computed

The figures are counted, not estimated: 1,712,304 boards for every suit pattern of the 24 specific deals, with both seven-card hands compared each time. Equity gives half a win for a tie. For the flop rows, a board is counted once under each of the ten flops inside it.

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

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