88
51.87%
Wins 51.63%, ties 0.48%
J9s
48.13%
Wins 47.89%, ties 0.48%
88 against J9s: the numbers
| Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 88 | 51.631 | 0.482 | 47.887 | 51.872 |
| J9s | 47.887 | 0.482 | 51.631 | 48.128 |
88, a pocket pair, plays J9s, a suited 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.
88 leads by less than 4 points of equity, so the result of any one deal is close to a toss-up. A split pot comes up on 0.48% 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 J9s is number 55.
| Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about |
|---|---|---|---|
| 88 | 21,218,000 | 198,000 | 19,679,000 |
| J9s | 19,679,000 | 198,000 | 21,218,000 |
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.
| Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 88 | 1.078 | 1.937 | 2.088 | 0.928 |
| J9s | 0.928 | 2.088 | 1.937 | 1.078 |
The last column is the break-even price: the pot odds a call needs to offer, as a ratio of pot to call.
Who is ahead on which flops
Break the boards down by their first three cards and 88 is strongest on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) (60.69%) and weakest on two-tone flops (49.70%). Rainbow flops topped by a ten or better and two-tone flops favor J9s, the hand that is behind overall.
| Flop | Share of flops | 88 wins | Ties | J9s wins | 88 equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.220 | 49.757 | 0.255 | 49.988 | 49.885 |
| Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.689 | 60.344 | 0.681 | 38.975 | 60.685 |
| Two-tone | 46.545 | 49.543 | 0.312 | 50.145 | 49.699 |
| Monotone | 5.212 | 49.602 | 2.414 | 47.984 | 50.809 |
| Paired | 17.334 | 57.714 | 0.622 | 41.664 | 58.025 |
Rainbow flops have three suits, two-tone flops repeat one suit, monotone flops are all one suit, and paired flops repeat a rank.
Compared with a random hand
Against one random hand instead, 88 holds 69.16% and J9s holds 55.66%. Facing each other changes that by -17.29 points for 88 and -7.53 points for J9s.
| Case | Equity here | Against a random hand | Change in points | Times the random-hand equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 88, all flops | 51.872 | 69.163 | -17.291 | 0.75000 |
| 88, rainbow, ten or higher | 49.885 | 69.163 | -19.278 | 0.72127 |
| 88, rainbow, nine or lower | 60.685 | 69.163 | -8.478 | 0.87742 |
| 88, two-tone | 49.699 | 69.163 | -19.464 | 0.71858 |
| 88, monotone | 50.809 | 69.163 | -18.354 | 0.73463 |
| 88, paired | 58.025 | 69.163 | -11.138 | 0.83896 |
| J9s, all flops | 48.128 | 55.662 | -7.534 | 0.86465 |
| J9s, rainbow, ten or higher | 50.115 | 55.662 | -5.547 | 0.90034 |
| J9s, rainbow, nine or lower | 39.315 | 55.662 | -16.347 | 0.70632 |
| J9s, two-tone | 50.301 | 55.662 | -5.361 | 0.90369 |
| J9s, monotone | 49.191 | 55.662 | -6.471 | 0.88374 |
| J9s, paired | 41.975 | 55.662 | -13.687 | 0.75411 |
Does a shared suit matter?
When the hands share a suit, 88 holds 51.99%; when they do not, it holds 51.75%. The two rows differ by only 0.24 points, so suits barely change this matchup.
| Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | 88 wins | Ties | J9s wins | 88 equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Share a suit | 12 | 50.00 | 51.729 | 0.522 | 47.749 | 51.990 |
| No shared suit | 12 | 50.00 | 51.533 | 0.441 | 48.026 | 51.754 |
How often this matchup comes up
Out of 1,624,350 ways to deal two seats two cards each, 24 are 88 in one seat and J9s in the other (0.0015%); with the seats swapped too, 48 (0.0030%).
A worked example
Put $100 each into a $200 pot and deal every board once: 88 averages $103.74 back, ahead of its $100 by $3.74, while J9s averages $96.26, short of its $100 by $3.74.
A thousand deals look like this: 88 takes 516, J9s takes 479, 5 are ties.
The same matchup from the other side
J9s against 88 adds nothing new: it is 48.13% for J9s and 51.87% for 88, the same figures reversed.
Keep exploring
Open the calculator with 8s8h against Jd9d 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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