88
53.03%
Wins 52.82%, ties 0.44%
K9s
46.97%
Wins 46.74%, ties 0.44%
88 against K9s: the numbers
| Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 88 | 52.816 | 0.435 | 46.749 | 53.034 |
| K9s | 46.749 | 0.435 | 52.816 | 46.966 |
The first hand is a pocket pair; the second is 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.
This is close to even money, with 88 a little ahead. About 0.44% of boards chop the pot, which is why equity sits slightly above the win figure for both hands.
The hand ranking puts 88 at 7 and K9s at 29 out of 169 starting hands.
| Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about |
|---|---|---|---|
| 88 | 21,705,000 | 179,000 | 19,212,000 |
| K9s | 19,212,000 | 179,000 | 21,705,000 |
24 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.
| Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 88 | 1.129 | 1.893 | 2.139 | 0.886 |
| K9s | 0.886 | 2.139 | 1.893 | 1.129 |
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
If you know the kind of flop that came, the numbers shift: 88 holds 61.93% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) and 51.08% on two-tone flops. 88 stays ahead on all five textures.
| Flop | Share of flops | 88 wins | Ties | K9s wins | 88 equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.220 | 51.353 | 0.227 | 48.420 | 51.467 |
| Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.689 | 61.559 | 0.741 | 37.700 | 61.929 |
| Two-tone | 46.545 | 50.933 | 0.298 | 48.769 | 51.082 |
| Monotone | 5.212 | 50.718 | 2.398 | 46.884 | 51.917 |
| Paired | 17.334 | 57.764 | 0.416 | 41.820 | 57.972 |
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, 59.99% for K9s. Here the change is -16.13 and -13.02 points.
| Case | Equity here | Against a random hand | Change in points | Times the random-hand equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 88, all flops | 53.034 | 69.163 | -16.129 | 0.76680 |
| 88, rainbow, ten or higher | 51.467 | 69.163 | -17.696 | 0.74414 |
| 88, rainbow, nine or lower | 61.929 | 69.163 | -7.234 | 0.89541 |
| 88, two-tone | 51.082 | 69.163 | -18.081 | 0.73857 |
| 88, monotone | 51.917 | 69.163 | -17.246 | 0.75065 |
| 88, paired | 57.972 | 69.163 | -11.191 | 0.83819 |
| K9s, all flops | 46.966 | 59.988 | -13.022 | 0.78292 |
| K9s, rainbow, ten or higher | 48.533 | 59.988 | -11.455 | 0.80905 |
| K9s, rainbow, nine or lower | 38.071 | 59.988 | -21.917 | 0.63464 |
| K9s, two-tone | 48.918 | 59.988 | -11.070 | 0.81546 |
| K9s, monotone | 48.083 | 59.988 | -11.905 | 0.80154 |
| K9s, paired | 42.028 | 59.988 | -17.960 | 0.70061 |
Does a shared suit matter?
Two kinds of deal exist here. In 12 of them the hands share a suit and 88 holds 53.20%. In 12 they do not, and it holds 52.87%. 88 does better with a shared suit, by 0.33 points.
| Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | 88 wins | Ties | K9s wins | 88 equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Share a suit | 12 | 50.00 | 52.961 | 0.477 | 46.562 | 53.200 |
| No shared suit | 12 | 50.00 | 52.671 | 0.394 | 46.935 | 52.868 |
How often this matchup comes up
This page stands for 24 specific-card matchups (0.0015% of 1,624,350 ordered deals), or 48 once you count the seats both ways (0.0030%).
A worked example
Say each player puts $100 in before the flop, making a $200 pot. On average 88 takes back $106.06 of it, which is $6.06 more than it put in, and K9s takes back $93.94, $6.06 less than it put in.
Think in thousands: about 528 of 1,000 go to 88, about 468 go to K9s, and about 4 are chopped.
The same matchup from the other side
Read it from the other side: K9s against 88 is the same matchup with the numbers swapped, so K9s holds 46.97% and 88 holds 53.03%. That address sends you back to this page.
Keep exploring
Try 8s8h against Kd9d in the calculator: the hands share no suit, and every card can be changed. The links after it are the closest matchups 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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