97s
61.85%
Wins 60.41%, ties 2.89%
86s
38.15%
Wins 36.70%, ties 2.89%
97s against 86s: the numbers
| Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 97s | 60.411 | 2.887 | 36.702 | 61.854 |
| 86s | 36.702 | 2.887 | 60.411 | 38.146 |
Here suited hands face each other, 97s on one side and 86s on the other. Neither hand shares a rank with the other, so this is a contest of high cards, connection and suits.
The lead is steady rather than large, and the flop still has plenty of say in who wins. A split pot comes up on 2.89% of boards, so the wins and the equity differ by half of that.
For context, 97s sits at number 94 of 169 starting hands and 86s at number 110 when each is run against a random hand.
| Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about |
|---|---|---|---|
| 97s | 16,551,000 | 791,000 | 10,055,000 |
| 86s | 10,055,000 | 791,000 | 16,551,000 |
Exact total: 16 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.
| Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 97s | 1.622 | 1.655 | 2.725 | 0.617 |
| 86s | 0.617 | 2.725 | 1.655 | 1.622 |
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
Split by what the flop looks like, 97s peaks at 63.92% on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better and bottoms out at 55.35% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower). 97s stays ahead on all five textures.
| Flop | Share of flops | 97s wins | Ties | 86s wins | 97s equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.844 | 62.801 | 2.229 | 34.970 | 63.915 |
| Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.065 | 55.254 | 0.191 | 44.555 | 55.349 |
| Two-tone | 46.727 | 60.602 | 1.696 | 37.702 | 61.450 |
| Monotone | 5.273 | 56.921 | 4.361 | 38.718 | 59.102 |
| Paired | 17.091 | 58.878 | 7.482 | 33.640 | 62.619 |
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
A random hand would give 97s 49.12% and 86s 46.24%. Against each other the change is +12.73 points for 97s and -8.09 for 86s.
| Case | Equity here | Against a random hand | Change in points | Times the random-hand equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 97s, all flops | 61.854 | 49.118 | +12.736 | 1.25929 |
| 97s, rainbow, ten or higher | 63.915 | 49.118 | +14.797 | 1.30125 |
| 97s, rainbow, nine or lower | 55.349 | 49.118 | +6.231 | 1.12686 |
| 97s, two-tone | 61.450 | 49.118 | +12.332 | 1.25107 |
| 97s, monotone | 59.102 | 49.118 | +9.984 | 1.20327 |
| 97s, paired | 62.619 | 49.118 | +13.501 | 1.27487 |
| 86s, all flops | 38.146 | 46.243 | -8.097 | 0.82490 |
| 86s, rainbow, ten or higher | 36.085 | 46.243 | -10.158 | 0.78033 |
| 86s, rainbow, nine or lower | 44.651 | 46.243 | -1.592 | 0.96557 |
| 86s, two-tone | 38.550 | 46.243 | -7.693 | 0.83364 |
| 86s, monotone | 40.898 | 46.243 | -5.345 | 0.88441 |
| 86s, paired | 37.381 | 46.243 | -8.862 | 0.80836 |
Does a shared suit matter?
The suit split reads 64.24% for 97s with a shared suit and 61.06% without one. 97s does better with a shared suit, by 3.18 points.
| Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | 97s wins | Ties | 86s wins | 97s equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Share a suit | 4 | 25.00 | 62.683 | 3.107 | 34.210 | 64.237 |
| No shared suit | 12 | 75.00 | 59.653 | 2.814 | 37.533 | 61.060 |
How often this matchup comes up
Out of 1,624,350 ways to deal two seats two cards each, 16 are 97s in one seat and 86s in the other (0.0010%); with the seats swapped too, 32 (0.0020%).
A worked example
To see what the equity is worth, imagine $100 each in a $200 pot. 97s is worth $123.70 on average (+$23.70); 86s is worth $76.30 (-$23.70).
Out of 1,000 deals you should see around 604 outright wins for 97s, 367 for 86s, and 29 split pots.
The same matchup from the other side
The reversed view, 86s against 97s, shows 38.15% for 86s and 61.85% for 97s. It is the same count, so it redirects here.
Keep exploring
9s7s against 8h6h is a ready-made deal for the calculator, with no suit in common between the hands. The neighboring matchups below replace one hand with another of similar strength.
How this was computed
We counted every case. Each suit pattern of the 16 specific 97s against 86s deals meets all 1,712,304 boards, and the better five-card hand wins; a split pot is half a win each. The flop table reads each board under all ten of its three-card flops.
Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used.
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