---
title: "98s vs 86s: preflop equity"
url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/98s-vs-86s.md"
canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/98s-vs-86s"
last_updated: "2026-10-23"
type: "reference"
summary: "98s is a big favorite over 86s before the flop: 68.29% to 31.71% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit."
related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/98s-vs-76s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/98s-vs-75s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/22-vs-86s.md"]
---

# 98s vs 86s: preflop equity

98s is a big favorite over 86s before the flop: 68.29% to 31.71% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit.

Dealt all in against each other, 98s takes 68.29% of the pot on average and 86s takes the other 31.71%.

## 98s against 86s: the numbers

**Exact preflop results for 98s against 86s, in percent**

| Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 98s | 63.764 | 9.057 | 27.179 | 68.292 |
| 86s | 27.179 | 9.057 | 63.764 | 31.708 |

Two suited hands meet here: 98s against 86s. Because the hands share one rank, the one with the higher kicker is ahead when that rank pairs and the other hand is mostly drawing.

A lead of 36.58 points is large but not decisive: 86s still takes about 272 of every 1,000 deals. Ties are 9.06% of the outcomes here; each tied board gives both hands half the pot.

By strength against a random hand, 98s holds place 83 of 169 and 86s holds place 110.

**Boards behind the percentages: 20,547,648 counted in all**

| Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 98s | 13,102,000 | 1,861,000 | 5,585,000 |
| 86s | 5,585,000 | 1,861,000 | 13,102,000 |

The total is exact: 12 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 86s 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 | 2.154 | 1.568 | 3.679 | 0.464 |
| 86s | 0.464 | 3.679 | 1.568 | 2.154 |

In the last column, a pot-to-call ratio at or above the figure makes a call break even or better at this equity.

## Who is ahead on which flops

Split by what the flop looks like, 98s peaks at 71.60% on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better and bottoms out at 62.23% on monotone flops. 98s stays ahead on all five textures.

**98s against 86s by flop texture, in percent**

| Flop | Share of flops | 98s wins | Ties | 86s wins | 98s equity |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.844 | 67.221 | 8.758 | 24.021 | 71.600 |
| Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.065 | 60.691 | 4.226 | 35.083 | 62.804 |
| Two-tone | 46.543 | 63.820 | 7.352 | 28.828 | 67.496 |
| Monotone | 5.215 | 57.812 | 8.830 | 33.358 | 62.227 |
| Paired | 17.333 | 61.147 | 15.561 | 23.292 | 68.927 |

Rainbow flops have three suits, two-tone flops repeat one suit, monotone flops are all one suit, and paired flops repeat a rank.

## Compared with a random hand

A random hand would give 98s 50.80% and 86s 46.24%. Against each other the change is +17.49 points for 98s and -14.53 for 86s.

**98s and 86s 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 | 68.292 | 50.801 | +17.491 | 1.34430 |
| 98s, rainbow, ten or higher | 71.600 | 50.801 | +20.799 | 1.40942 |
| 98s, rainbow, nine or lower | 62.804 | 50.801 | +12.003 | 1.23627 |
| 98s, two-tone | 67.496 | 50.801 | +16.695 | 1.32864 |
| 98s, monotone | 62.227 | 50.801 | +11.426 | 1.22492 |
| 98s, paired | 68.927 | 50.801 | +18.126 | 1.35680 |
| 86s, all flops | 31.708 | 46.243 | -14.535 | 0.68568 |
| 86s, rainbow, ten or higher | 28.400 | 46.243 | -17.843 | 0.61415 |
| 86s, rainbow, nine or lower | 37.196 | 46.243 | -9.047 | 0.80436 |
| 86s, two-tone | 32.504 | 46.243 | -13.739 | 0.70290 |
| 86s, monotone | 37.773 | 46.243 | -8.470 | 0.81684 |
| 86s, paired | 31.073 | 46.243 | -15.170 | 0.67195 |

## Does a shared suit matter?

A shared suit is impossible for this matchup, so 98s' 68.29% is the answer for every suit pattern.

**98s against 86s by suit overlap, in percent**

| Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | 98s wins | Ties | 86s wins | 98s equity |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Share a suit | 0 | 0.00 | not possible | not possible | not possible | not possible |
| No shared suit | 12 | 100.00 | 63.764 | 9.057 | 27.179 | 68.292 |

## How often this matchup comes up

Out of 1,624,350 ways to deal two seats two cards each, 12 are 98s in one seat and 86s in the other (0.0007%); with the seats swapped too, 24 (0.0015%).

## A worked example

With $100 from each side, the $200 pot is split on average as $136.58 for 98s and $63.42 for 86s; the first side gains $36.58 per all-in and the second gives up $36.58.

A thousand deals look like this: 98s takes 638, 86s takes 272, 90 are ties.

## The same matchup from the other side

One page covers both views. From 86s' side the equity is 31.71%, and from 98s' side it is 68.29%.

## Keep exploring

Try 9s8s against 8h6h 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 9s8s against 8h6h in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=9s8s&p2=8h6h)
- [98s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/98s.md)
- [86s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/86s.md)
- [98s vs 76s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/98s-vs-76s.md)
- [98s vs 75s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/98s-vs-75s.md)
- [22 vs 86s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/22-vs-86s.md)
- [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md)

## How this was computed

The page is built from a full enumeration: 1,712,304 boards, every suit pattern of the 12 specific deals, both seven-card hands evaluated. A tie is worth half a win to each hand, and a board is tallied under each of its ten possible flops for the texture rows.

Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used.

## Related

- [98s vs 76s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/98s-vs-76s.md)
- [98s vs 75s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/98s-vs-75s.md)
- [22 vs 86s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/22-vs-86s.md)