--- title: "98s vs 22: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/98s-vs-22.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/98s-vs-22" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "Who is ahead, 98s or 22? 98s leads 53.43% to 46.57% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/98s-vs-97s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/98s-vs-87s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/t9o-vs-22.md"] --- # 98s vs 22: preflop equity Who is ahead, 98s or 22? 98s leads 53.43% to 46.57% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. If 98s and 22 get all the chips in before the flop, 98s owns 53.43% of the pot in the long run and 22 owns 46.57%. ## 98s against 22: the numbers **Exact preflop results for 98s against 22, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 98s | 52.413 | 2.035 | 45.552 | 53.430 | | 22 | 45.552 | 2.035 | 52.413 | 46.570 | The matchup pits a suited hand against a pocket pair. One hand holds a pair and the other holds two cards that both outrank it, which keeps the equity closer than most people expect. This is close to even money, with 98s a little ahead. The tie share is 2.04%: on those boards the pot is chopped and neither hand wins outright. The hand ranking puts 98s at 83 and 22 at 87 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 98s | 21,539,000 | 836,000 | 18,720,000 | | 22 | 18,720,000 | 836,000 | 21,539,000 | The total is exact: 24 specific deals times 1,712,304 boards. The three counts are approximate, worked out from the percentages to five decimals and rounded to the nearest thousand. **98s against 22 read as odds** | Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 98s | 1.147 | 1.908 | 2.195 | 0.872 | | 22 | 0.872 | 2.195 | 1.908 | 1.147 | The last column is the smallest pot odds, written as a pot-to-call ratio, at which a call breaks even with this equity. ## Who is ahead on which flops The flop changes the picture. 98s does best on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower), at 58.45%, and worst on paired flops, at 51.19%. 98s stays ahead on all five textures. **98s against 22 by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | 98s wins | Ties | 22 wins | 98s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.844 | 51.253 | 1.151 | 47.596 | 51.828 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.065 | 58.122 | 0.648 | 41.230 | 58.446 | | Two-tone | 46.545 | 54.169 | 1.021 | 44.810 | 54.680 | | Monotone | 5.212 | 50.651 | 4.278 | 45.071 | 52.790 | | Paired | 17.334 | 48.287 | 5.806 | 45.907 | 51.190 | Read the flop types this way: rainbow has three suits, two-tone has two cards of one suit, monotone has three, and paired repeats a rank. ## Compared with a random hand A random hand would give 98s 50.80% and 22 50.33%. Against each other the change is +2.63 points for 98s and -3.76 for 22. **98s and 22 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 98s, all flops | 53.430 | 50.801 | +2.629 | 1.05175 | | 98s, rainbow, ten or higher | 51.828 | 50.801 | +1.027 | 1.02022 | | 98s, rainbow, nine or lower | 58.446 | 50.801 | +7.645 | 1.15049 | | 98s, two-tone | 54.680 | 50.801 | +3.879 | 1.07636 | | 98s, monotone | 52.790 | 50.801 | +1.989 | 1.03915 | | 98s, paired | 51.190 | 50.801 | +0.389 | 1.00766 | | 22, all flops | 46.570 | 50.334 | -3.764 | 0.92522 | | 22, rainbow, ten or higher | 48.172 | 50.334 | -2.162 | 0.95705 | | 22, rainbow, nine or lower | 41.554 | 50.334 | -8.780 | 0.82557 | | 22, two-tone | 45.320 | 50.334 | -5.014 | 0.90039 | | 22, monotone | 47.210 | 50.334 | -3.124 | 0.93793 | | 22, paired | 48.810 | 50.334 | -1.524 | 0.96972 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Split by suits, the deals give 98s 53.29% when the hands overlap in a suit and 53.57% when they do not. 98s does better with no shared suit, by 0.28 points. **98s against 22 by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | 98s wins | Ties | 22 wins | 98s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 12 | 50.00 | 52.261 | 2.055 | 45.684 | 53.288 | | No shared suit | 12 | 50.00 | 52.565 | 2.014 | 45.421 | 53.572 | ## How often this matchup comes up The class pair covers 24 combinations of specific cards in a fixed seat order, 0.0015% of 1,624,350, and 48 (0.0030%) in either order. ## A worked example Worked example: both players commit $100, so $200 sits in the middle. Over every board, 98s' average share is $106.86 (a gain of $6.86) and 22's is $93.14 (a loss of $6.86). A thousand deals look like this: 98s takes 524, 22 takes 456, 20 are ties. ## The same matchup from the other side The reversed view, 22 against 98s, shows 46.57% for 22 and 53.43% for 98s. It is the same count, so it redirects here. ## Keep exploring Open the calculator with 9s8s against 2h2d already entered, a deal with no shared suit, and change any card to try your own hand. The matchups after it each swap one hand for a nearby one in the ranking. - [Open 9s8s against 2h2d in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=9s8s&p2=2h2d) - [98s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/98s.md) - [22 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/22.md) - [98s vs 97s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/98s-vs-97s.md) - [98s vs 87s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/98s-vs-87s.md) - [T9o vs 22](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/t9o-vs-22.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed This is an exact count with no sampling. For the 24 ways to deal one 98s and one 22 without reusing a card, grouped by suit pattern, every one of the 1,712,304 possible boards is dealt and both seven-card hands are compared. A tie counts as half a win in the equity column, and each board is counted once under each of its ten three-card flops. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [98s vs 97s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/98s-vs-97s.md) - [98s vs 87s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/98s-vs-87s.md) - [T9o vs 22: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/t9o-vs-22.md)