--- title: "98s vs 87s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/98s-vs-87s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/98s-vs-87s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "98s is a big favorite over 87s before the flop: 68.17% to 31.83% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/98s-vs-86s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/98s-vs-76s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/22-vs-87s.md"] --- # 98s vs 87s: preflop equity 98s is a big favorite over 87s before the flop: 68.17% to 31.83% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Counting every board, the equity split is 68.17% for 98s and 31.83% for 87s, so 98s leads by 36.34 points. ## 98s against 87s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for 98s against 87s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 98s | 63.629 | 9.090 | 27.281 | 68.174 | | 87s | 27.281 | 9.090 | 63.629 | 31.826 | 98s meets 87s, and both are suited hands. 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. That is a clear edge, 68.17% to 31.83%, but 87s still wins often enough that one hand proves nothing. Ties are 9.09% of the outcomes here; each tied board gives both hands half the pot. Place 83 of 169 belongs to 98s and place 100 belongs to 87s in the ranking against a random hand. **Boards behind the percentages: 20,547,648 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 98s | 13,074,000 | 1,868,000 | 5,606,000 | | 87s | 5,606,000 | 1,868,000 | 13,074,000 | 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 87s 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 | 2.142 | 1.572 | 3.666 | 0.467 | | 87s | 0.467 | 3.666 | 1.572 | 2.142 | 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, 98s peaks at 71.26% on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better and bottoms out at 62.10% on monotone flops. 98s stays ahead on all five textures. **98s against 87s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | 98s wins | Ties | 87s wins | 98s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.844 | 66.838 | 8.835 | 24.327 | 71.256 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.065 | 62.015 | 4.006 | 33.979 | 64.018 | | Two-tone | 46.543 | 63.704 | 7.381 | 28.915 | 67.394 | | Monotone | 5.215 | 57.671 | 8.862 | 33.467 | 62.102 | | Paired | 17.333 | 60.910 | 15.614 | 23.476 | 68.717 | 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 Each hand has a baseline against a random hand: 50.80% for 98s, 47.94% for 87s. Here the change is +17.37 and -16.11 points. **98s and 87s 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 | 68.174 | 50.801 | +17.373 | 1.34198 | | 98s, rainbow, ten or higher | 71.256 | 50.801 | +20.455 | 1.40265 | | 98s, rainbow, nine or lower | 64.018 | 50.801 | +13.217 | 1.26017 | | 98s, two-tone | 67.394 | 50.801 | +16.593 | 1.32663 | | 98s, monotone | 62.102 | 50.801 | +11.301 | 1.22246 | | 98s, paired | 68.717 | 50.801 | +17.916 | 1.35267 | | 87s, all flops | 31.826 | 47.936 | -16.110 | 0.66393 | | 87s, rainbow, ten or higher | 28.744 | 47.936 | -19.192 | 0.59963 | | 87s, rainbow, nine or lower | 35.982 | 47.936 | -11.954 | 0.75063 | | 87s, two-tone | 32.606 | 47.936 | -15.330 | 0.68020 | | 87s, monotone | 37.898 | 47.936 | -10.038 | 0.79060 | | 87s, paired | 31.283 | 47.936 | -16.653 | 0.65260 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Every legal deal of 98s against 87s leaves the hands with no suit in common, so the suit split does not apply here. **98s against 87s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | 98s wins | Ties | 87s wins | 98s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 0 | 0.00 | not possible | not possible | not possible | not possible | | No shared suit | 12 | 100.00 | 63.629 | 9.090 | 27.281 | 68.174 | ## How often this matchup comes up 98s against 87s is made up of 12 specific-card matchups in one seat order, 0.0007% of the 1,624,350 ordered deals, and 24 counting both seat orders, 0.0015%. ## A worked example A $100 all-in from each player makes a $200 pot, and the exact equity says 98s gets $136.34 of it on average and 87s gets $63.66. Over a long run, 1,000 deals split into about 636 for 98s, 273 for 87s and 91 tied. ## The same matchup from the other side Swap the hands and you get 87s with 31.83% against 98s with 68.17%. We keep one page per matchup, with the better-ranked hand first. ## Keep exploring Open the calculator with 9s8s against 8h7h 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 8h7h in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=9s8s&p2=8h7h) - [98s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/98s.md) - [87s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/87s.md) - [98s vs 86s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/98s-vs-86s.md) - [98s vs 76s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/98s-vs-76s.md) - [22 vs 87s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/22-vs-87s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed Method: exact enumeration. The 12 specific deals are grouped by suit pattern, each is run against all 1,712,304 boards, and both seven-card hands are scored. Equity adds half of every tie, and flop textures are tallied over the ten flops inside each board. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [98s vs 86s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/98s-vs-86s.md) - [98s vs 76s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/98s-vs-76s.md) - [22 vs 87s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/22-vs-87s.md)