--- title: "88 vs K9s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-k9s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-k9s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "Who is ahead, 88 or K9s? 88 leads 53.03% to 46.97% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-a5s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-a6s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-k9s.md"] --- # 88 vs K9s: preflop equity Who is ahead, 88 or K9s? 88 leads 53.03% to 46.97% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Before any board card is dealt, 88 holds 53.03% equity against K9s, which leaves K9s with 46.97%. ## 88 against K9s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for 88 against K9s, in percent** | 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. **Boards behind the percentages: 41,095,296 counted in all** | 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. **88 against K9s 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 | 1.129 | 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. **88 against K9s by flop texture, in percent** | 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. **88 and K9s 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 | 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. **88 against K9s by suit overlap, in percent** | 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. - [Open 8s8h against Kd9d in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=8s8h&p2=Kd9d) - [88 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/88.md) - [K9s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/k9s.md) - [88 vs A5s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-a5s.md) - [88 vs A6s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-a6s.md) - [AKs vs K9s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-k9s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## 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. ## Related - [88 vs A5s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-a5s.md) - [88 vs A6s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-a6s.md) - [AKs vs K9s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-k9s.md)