A5s
55.56%
Wins 55.32%, ties 0.50%
98s
44.44%
Wins 44.18%, ties 0.50%
A5s against 98s: the numbers
| Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A5s | 55.315 | 0.499 | 44.186 | 55.564 |
| 98s | 44.186 | 0.499 | 55.315 | 44.436 |
Here suited hands face each other, A5s on one side and 98s on the other. The two hands share no rank, which makes this a pure matchup of card strength, straight chances and flush chances.
That is a modest edge, the kind that shows up over many hands and is easy to miss in one. A split pot comes up on 0.50% of boards, so the wins and the equity differ by half of that.
Ranked by equity against a random hand, A5s is number 30 of the 169 starting hands and 98s is number 83.
| Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about |
|---|---|---|---|
| A5s | 15,155,000 | 137,000 | 12,106,000 |
| 98s | 12,106,000 | 137,000 | 15,155,000 |
The board total is exact, 16 deals at 1,712,304 boards each. Won, tied and lost counts are rounded to the nearest thousand from the five-decimal percentages.
| Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A5s | 1.250 | 1.808 | 2.263 | 0.800 |
| 98s | 0.800 | 2.263 | 1.808 | 1.250 |
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
The flop changes the picture. A5s does best on paired flops, at 61.07%, and worst on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower), at 41.26%. Watch for low rainbow flops (nine high or lower): on those flops 98s holds the better equity.
| Flop | Share of flops | A5s wins | Ties | 98s wins | A5s equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.220 | 57.581 | 0.204 | 42.215 | 57.683 |
| Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.689 | 40.950 | 0.612 | 58.438 | 41.256 |
| Two-tone | 46.727 | 54.260 | 0.257 | 45.483 | 54.389 |
| Monotone | 5.273 | 51.733 | 3.424 | 44.843 | 53.445 |
| Paired | 17.091 | 60.741 | 0.657 | 38.602 | 61.069 |
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
The table below sets each hand against its own random-hand baseline: a change of -4.36 points for A5s, from 59.92%, and -6.36 for 98s, from 50.80%.
| Case | Equity here | Against a random hand | Change in points | Times the random-hand equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A5s, all flops | 55.564 | 59.923 | -4.359 | 0.92726 |
| A5s, rainbow, ten or higher | 57.683 | 59.923 | -2.240 | 0.96262 |
| A5s, rainbow, nine or lower | 41.256 | 59.923 | -18.667 | 0.68848 |
| A5s, two-tone | 54.389 | 59.923 | -5.534 | 0.90765 |
| A5s, monotone | 53.445 | 59.923 | -6.478 | 0.89189 |
| A5s, paired | 61.069 | 59.923 | +1.146 | 1.01912 |
| 98s, all flops | 44.436 | 50.801 | -6.365 | 0.87471 |
| 98s, rainbow, ten or higher | 42.317 | 50.801 | -8.484 | 0.83300 |
| 98s, rainbow, nine or lower | 58.744 | 50.801 | +7.943 | 1.15636 |
| 98s, two-tone | 45.611 | 50.801 | -5.190 | 0.89784 |
| 98s, monotone | 46.555 | 50.801 | -4.246 | 0.91642 |
| 98s, paired | 38.931 | 50.801 | -11.870 | 0.76634 |
Does a shared suit matter?
Two kinds of deal exist here. In 4 of them the hands share a suit and A5s holds 57.25%. In 12 they do not, and it holds 55.00%. A5s does better with a shared suit, by 2.25 points.
| Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | A5s wins | Ties | 98s wins | A5s equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Share a suit | 4 | 25.00 | 56.962 | 0.580 | 42.458 | 57.252 |
| No shared suit | 12 | 75.00 | 54.765 | 0.473 | 44.762 | 55.002 |
How often this matchup comes up
Exactly 16 specific deals fit this matchup in one seat order, which is 0.0010% of 1,624,350; both orders together give 32, or 0.0020%.
A worked example
Put $100 each into a $200 pot and deal every board once: A5s averages $111.12 back, ahead of its $100 by $11.12, while 98s averages $88.88, short of its $100 by $11.12.
A thousand deals look like this: A5s takes 553, 98s takes 442, 5 are ties.
The same matchup from the other side
98s against A5s adds nothing new: it is 44.44% for 98s and 55.56% for A5s, the same figures reversed.
Keep exploring
Open the calculator with As5s against 9h8h 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.
How this was computed
Method: exact enumeration. The 16 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.
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