--- title: "88 vs ATo: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-ato.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-ato" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "Who is ahead, 88 or ATo? 88 leads 55.42% to 44.58% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-kjs.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-a8s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-ato.md"] --- # 88 vs ATo: preflop equity Who is ahead, 88 or ATo? 88 leads 55.42% to 44.58% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. The exact count puts 88 at 55.42% and ATo at 44.58% when the two hands see all five board cards. ## 88 against ATo: the numbers **Exact preflop results for 88 against ATo, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 88 | 55.244 | 0.356 | 44.400 | 55.422 | | ATo | 44.400 | 0.356 | 55.244 | 44.578 | 88, a pocket pair, plays ATo, an offsuit hand. One hand holds a pair and the other holds two cards that both outrank it, which keeps the equity closer than most people expect. The lead is steady rather than large, and the flop still has plenty of say in who wins. A split pot comes up on 0.36% of boards, so the wins and the equity differ by half of that. In the ranking of all 169 starting hands, 88 is number 7 and ATo is number 19. **Boards behind the percentages: 123,285,888 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 88 | 68,108,000 | 439,000 | 54,739,000 | | ATo | 54,739,000 | 439,000 | 68,108,000 | 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 ATo 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 | 1.243 | 1.810 | 2.252 | 0.804 | | ATo | 0.804 | 2.252 | 1.810 | 1.243 | 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 By flop texture, 88's equity runs from 48.49% on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better up to 79.27% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower). ATo is ahead on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better, even though it trails 88 when every flop is counted. **88 against ATo by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | 88 wins | Ties | ATo wins | 88 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 24.717 | 48.405 | 0.177 | 51.418 | 48.494 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 6.314 | 78.919 | 0.706 | 20.375 | 79.272 | | Two-tone | 46.485 | 54.272 | 0.274 | 45.454 | 54.409 | | Monotone | 5.151 | 50.926 | 1.677 | 47.397 | 51.765 | | Paired | 17.333 | 60.260 | 0.313 | 39.427 | 60.417 | Read the flop types this way: rainbow has three suits, two-tone has two cards of one suit, monotone has three, and paired repeats a rank. ## Compared with a random hand The table below sets each hand against its own random-hand baseline: a change of -13.74 points for 88, from 69.16%, and -18.14 for ATo, from 62.72%. **88 and ATo 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 | 55.422 | 69.163 | -13.741 | 0.80132 | | 88, rainbow, ten or higher | 48.494 | 69.163 | -20.669 | 0.70116 | | 88, rainbow, nine or lower | 79.272 | 69.163 | +10.109 | 1.14616 | | 88, two-tone | 54.409 | 69.163 | -14.754 | 0.78668 | | 88, monotone | 51.765 | 69.163 | -17.398 | 0.74845 | | 88, paired | 60.417 | 69.163 | -8.746 | 0.87355 | | ATo, all flops | 44.578 | 62.722 | -18.144 | 0.71072 | | ATo, rainbow, ten or higher | 51.506 | 62.722 | -11.216 | 0.82118 | | ATo, rainbow, nine or lower | 20.728 | 62.722 | -41.994 | 0.33047 | | ATo, two-tone | 45.591 | 62.722 | -17.131 | 0.72687 | | ATo, monotone | 48.235 | 62.722 | -14.487 | 0.76903 | | ATo, paired | 39.583 | 62.722 | -23.139 | 0.63109 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Of the deals of this matchup, 60 share a suit (88 at 55.34%) and 12 do not (55.83%). 88 does better with no shared suit, by 0.49 points. **88 against ATo by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | 88 wins | Ties | ATo wins | 88 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 60 | 83.33 | 55.154 | 0.372 | 44.474 | 55.340 | | No shared suit | 12 | 16.67 | 55.692 | 0.277 | 44.031 | 55.831 | ## How often this matchup comes up You will meet this exact matchup 0.0089% of the time in a random heads-up deal: 144 of 1,624,350, counting either seat order. ## A worked example Take a $200 pot built from $100 each. 88's equity of 55.42% is worth $110.84, a $10.84 edge, and ATo's 44.58% is worth $89.16, which is $10.84 under its stake. In 1,000 deals of exactly this matchup, expect about 552 won outright by 88, about 444 won outright by ATo and about 4 split. ## The same matchup from the other side ATo against 88 adds nothing new: it is 44.58% for ATo and 55.42% for 88, the same figures reversed. ## Keep exploring 8s8h against AdTc 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. - [Open 8s8h against AdTc in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=8s8h&p2=AdTc) - [88 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/88.md) - [ATo combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/ato.md) - [88 vs KJs](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-kjs.md) - [88 vs A8s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-a8s.md) - [AKs vs ATo](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-ato.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed This is an exact count with no sampling. For the 72 ways to deal one 88 and one ATo 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 KJs: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-kjs.md) - [88 vs A8s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-a8s.md) - [AKs vs ATo: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-ato.md)