--- title: "88 vs QJs: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-qjs.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-qjs" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "88 vs QJs is close to a coin flip before the flop: 50.95% to 49.05% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-k9s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-a5s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-qjs.md"] --- # 88 vs QJs: preflop equity 88 vs QJs is close to a coin flip before the flop: 50.95% to 49.05% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. If 88 and QJs get all the chips in before the flop, 88 owns 50.95% of the pot in the long run and QJs owns 49.05%. ## 88 against QJs: the numbers **Exact preflop results for 88 against QJs, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 88 | 50.727 | 0.440 | 48.833 | 50.947 | | QJs | 48.833 | 0.440 | 50.727 | 49.053 | Here a pocket pair (88) meets a suited hand (QJs). 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. Ties are part of the picture: 0.44% of boards end in a split pot, and each side counts that as half a win. The hand ranking puts 88 at 7 and QJs at 28 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 | 20,846,000 | 181,000 | 20,068,000 | | QJs | 20,068,000 | 181,000 | 20,846,000 | Exact total: 24 deals times 1,712,304 boards. The other three counts come from the five-decimal percentages and are rounded to the nearest thousand, so read them as approximate. **88 against QJs 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 | 1.039 | 1.971 | 2.048 | 0.963 | | QJs | 0.963 | 2.048 | 1.971 | 1.039 | The final column gives the least the pot must offer for each unit called for a call to break even at this equity. ## Who is ahead on which flops Low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) are the best for 88 (77.09%); rainbow flops topped by a ten or better are the worst (44.17%). Watch for rainbow flops topped by a ten or better and two-tone flops: on those flops QJs holds the better equity. **88 against QJs by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | 88 wins | Ties | QJs wins | 88 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 24.595 | 44.074 | 0.194 | 55.732 | 44.171 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 6.314 | 76.679 | 0.812 | 22.509 | 77.085 | | Two-tone | 46.545 | 48.664 | 0.298 | 51.038 | 48.813 | | Monotone | 5.212 | 49.104 | 2.400 | 48.496 | 50.304 | | Paired | 17.334 | 56.744 | 0.445 | 42.811 | 56.966 | Flop types: rainbow means three different suits, two-tone means one suit twice, monotone means one suit three times, paired means a repeated rank. ## Compared with a random hand How much does the opponent matter? Compared with its random-hand 69.16%, 88 changes by -18.21 points, and QJs, from 60.26%, by -11.21. **88 and QJs 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 | 50.947 | 69.163 | -18.216 | 0.73662 | | 88, rainbow, ten or higher | 44.171 | 69.163 | -24.992 | 0.63865 | | 88, rainbow, nine or lower | 77.085 | 69.163 | +7.922 | 1.11454 | | 88, two-tone | 48.813 | 69.163 | -20.350 | 0.70577 | | 88, monotone | 50.304 | 69.163 | -18.859 | 0.72733 | | 88, paired | 56.966 | 69.163 | -12.197 | 0.82365 | | QJs, all flops | 49.053 | 60.259 | -11.206 | 0.81404 | | QJs, rainbow, ten or higher | 55.829 | 60.259 | -4.430 | 0.92648 | | QJs, rainbow, nine or lower | 22.915 | 60.259 | -37.344 | 0.38028 | | QJs, two-tone | 51.187 | 60.259 | -9.072 | 0.84945 | | QJs, monotone | 49.696 | 60.259 | -10.563 | 0.82471 | | QJs, paired | 43.034 | 60.259 | -17.225 | 0.71415 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Two kinds of deal exist here. In 12 of them the hands share a suit and 88 holds 51.09%. In 12 they do not, and it holds 50.81%. 88 does better with a shared suit, by 0.28 points. **88 against QJs by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | 88 wins | Ties | QJs wins | 88 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 12 | 50.00 | 50.847 | 0.482 | 48.671 | 51.088 | | No shared suit | 12 | 50.00 | 50.608 | 0.397 | 48.995 | 50.806 | ## How often this matchup comes up How often does it happen? 24 of the 1,624,350 ordered deals (0.0015%) are 88 against QJs, and 48 (0.0030%) if either hand may sit in either seat. ## A worked example To see what the equity is worth, imagine $100 each in a $200 pot. 88 is worth $101.90 on average (+$1.90); QJs is worth $98.10 (-$1.90). Per 1,000 deals: 88 wins about 507, QJs wins about 488, and about 5 end in a split pot. ## The same matchup from the other side QJs versus 88 is this same page seen from the other hand: 49.05% for QJs, 50.95% for 88. ## Keep exploring The calculator link fills in 8s8h against QdJd, 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 QdJd in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=8s8h&p2=QdJd) - [88 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/88.md) - [QJs combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/qjs.md) - [88 vs K9s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-k9s.md) - [88 vs A5s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-a5s.md) - [AKs vs QJs](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-qjs.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 K9s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-k9s.md) - [88 vs A5s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-a5s.md) - [AKs vs QJs: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-qjs.md)