--- title: "88 vs KTo: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-kto.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-kto" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "Who is ahead, 88 or KTo? 88 leads 54.06% to 45.94% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-qts.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-a4s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-kto.md"] --- # 88 vs KTo: preflop equity Who is ahead, 88 or KTo? 88 leads 54.06% to 45.94% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Averaged over every possible board, 88 is ahead of KTo by 8.12 points of equity, 54.06% to 45.94%. ## 88 against KTo: the numbers **Exact preflop results for 88 against KTo, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 88 | 53.857 | 0.401 | 45.742 | 54.057 | | KTo | 45.742 | 0.401 | 53.857 | 45.943 | 88 and KTo are a pocket pair and an offsuit hand, in that order. This is a pair against two overcards, a matchup that stays close because the other hand only needs one of its ranks to appear. 88 leads by less than 9 points of equity, so the result of any one deal is close to a toss-up. A split pot comes up on 0.40% of boards, so the wins and the equity differ by half of that. Among the 169 starting hands, 88 is number 7 and KTo is number 33 by strength against a random hand. **Boards behind the percentages: 123,285,888 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 88 | 66,398,000 | 494,000 | 56,393,000 | | KTo | 56,393,000 | 494,000 | 66,398,000 | The board total is exact, 72 deals at 1,712,304 boards each. Won, tied and lost counts are rounded to the nearest thousand from the five-decimal percentages. **88 against KTo 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 | 1.177 | 1.857 | 2.186 | 0.850 | | KTo | 0.850 | 2.186 | 1.857 | 1.177 | 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 The flop changes the picture. 88 does best on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower), at 80.30%, and worst on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better, at 46.30%. 88 is the favorite overall but falls behind on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better. **88 against KTo by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | 88 wins | Ties | KTo wins | 88 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 24.717 | 46.192 | 0.219 | 53.589 | 46.301 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 6.314 | 79.931 | 0.742 | 19.327 | 80.302 | | Two-tone | 46.485 | 52.772 | 0.312 | 46.916 | 52.928 | | Monotone | 5.151 | 49.825 | 1.704 | 48.471 | 50.677 | | Paired | 17.333 | 59.397 | 0.388 | 40.215 | 59.591 | 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 Against one random hand instead, 88 holds 69.16% and KTo holds 59.74%. Facing each other changes that by -15.10 points for 88 and -13.80 points for KTo. **88 and KTo 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 | 54.057 | 69.163 | -15.106 | 0.78159 | | 88, rainbow, ten or higher | 46.301 | 69.163 | -22.862 | 0.66945 | | 88, rainbow, nine or lower | 80.302 | 69.163 | +11.139 | 1.16105 | | 88, two-tone | 52.928 | 69.163 | -16.235 | 0.76526 | | 88, monotone | 50.677 | 69.163 | -18.486 | 0.73272 | | 88, paired | 59.591 | 69.163 | -9.572 | 0.86160 | | KTo, all flops | 45.943 | 59.739 | -13.796 | 0.76906 | | KTo, rainbow, ten or higher | 53.699 | 59.739 | -6.040 | 0.89889 | | KTo, rainbow, nine or lower | 19.698 | 59.739 | -40.041 | 0.32973 | | KTo, two-tone | 47.072 | 59.739 | -12.667 | 0.78796 | | KTo, monotone | 49.323 | 59.739 | -10.416 | 0.82564 | | KTo, paired | 40.409 | 59.739 | -19.330 | 0.67643 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Suit overlap shows up in the numbers. With a suit in common 88 has 53.97% equity, and with none in common it has 54.49%. 88 does better with no shared suit, by 0.52 points. **88 against KTo by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | 88 wins | Ties | KTo wins | 88 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 60 | 83.33 | 53.763 | 0.417 | 45.820 | 53.972 | | No shared suit | 12 | 16.67 | 54.325 | 0.322 | 45.353 | 54.486 | ## How often this matchup comes up Exactly 72 specific deals fit this matchup in one seat order, which is 0.0044% of 1,624,350; both orders together give 144, or 0.0089%. ## A worked example A $100 all-in from each player makes a $200 pot, and the exact equity says 88 gets $108.12 of it on average and KTo gets $91.88. Per 1,000 deals: 88 wins about 539, KTo wins about 457, and about 4 end in a split pot. ## The same matchup from the other side If you came looking for KTo against 88, the numbers are the same with the hands swapped: 45.94% and 54.06%. ## Keep exploring The calculator link fills in 8s8h against KdTc, a deal where the two hands share no suit. Change any card to test your own hand. The neighboring matchups below swap one of the two hands for one of similar strength. - [Open 8s8h against KdTc in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=8s8h&p2=KdTc) - [88 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/88.md) - [KTo combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/kto.md) - [88 vs QTs](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-qts.md) - [88 vs A4s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-a4s.md) - [AKs vs KTo](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-kto.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed Each figure is a complete count over boards. Take the 72 specific deals, group them by suit pattern, deal all 1,712,304 boards against each, and compare the two seven-card hands. Equity counts a tie as half a win; the flop rows use every one of a board's ten flops. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [88 vs QTs: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-qts.md) - [88 vs A4s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-a4s.md) - [AKs vs KTo: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-kto.md)