--- title: "A7s vs 98s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a7s-vs-98s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a7s-vs-98s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "Who is ahead, A7s or 98s? A7s leads 56.12% to 43.88% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a7s-vs-22.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a7s-vs-97s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9o-vs-98s.md"] --- # A7s vs 98s: preflop equity Who is ahead, A7s or 98s? A7s leads 56.12% to 43.88% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Counting every board, the equity split is 56.12% for A7s and 43.88% for 98s, so A7s leads by 12.24 points. ## A7s against 98s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for A7s against 98s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A7s | 55.895 | 0.456 | 43.649 | 56.123 | | 98s | 43.649 | 0.456 | 55.895 | 43.877 | Two suited hands meet here: A7s against 98s. The two hands share no rank, which makes this a pure matchup of card strength, straight chances and flush chances. A 12.24 point lead is real, and 98s still takes about 436 of every 1,000 deals outright. Ties are 0.46% of the outcomes here; each tied board gives both hands half the pot. A7s ranks number 24 of 169 starting hands, and 98s ranks number 83, by equity against a random hand. **Boards behind the percentages: 27,396,864 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A7s | 15,313,000 | 125,000 | 11,958,000 | | 98s | 11,958,000 | 125,000 | 15,313,000 | 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. **A7s against 98s read as odds** | Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A7s | 1.279 | 1.789 | 2.291 | 0.782 | | 98s | 0.782 | 2.291 | 1.789 | 1.279 | 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 Break the boards down by their first three cards and A7s is strongest on paired flops (61.60%) and weakest on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) (39.68%). 98s is ahead on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower), even though it trails A7s when every flop is counted. **A7s against 98s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | A7s wins | Ties | 98s wins | A7s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.220 | 58.744 | 0.198 | 41.058 | 58.843 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.689 | 39.510 | 0.341 | 60.149 | 39.680 | | Two-tone | 46.727 | 54.818 | 0.208 | 44.974 | 54.922 | | Monotone | 5.273 | 52.048 | 3.385 | 44.567 | 53.741 | | Paired | 17.091 | 61.280 | 0.649 | 38.071 | 61.604 | Flop types: rainbow means three different suits, two-tone means one suit twice, monotone means one suit three times, paired means a repeated rank. ## Compared with a random hand Relative to a random opponent, A7s changes by -4.86 points (baseline 60.98%) and 98s by -6.92 points (baseline 50.80%). **A7s and 98s 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A7s, all flops | 56.123 | 60.984 | -4.861 | 0.92029 | | A7s, rainbow, ten or higher | 58.843 | 60.984 | -2.141 | 0.96489 | | A7s, rainbow, nine or lower | 39.680 | 60.984 | -21.304 | 0.65066 | | A7s, two-tone | 54.922 | 60.984 | -6.062 | 0.90060 | | A7s, monotone | 53.741 | 60.984 | -7.243 | 0.88123 | | A7s, paired | 61.604 | 60.984 | +0.620 | 1.01017 | | 98s, all flops | 43.877 | 50.801 | -6.924 | 0.86370 | | 98s, rainbow, ten or higher | 41.157 | 50.801 | -9.644 | 0.81016 | | 98s, rainbow, nine or lower | 60.320 | 50.801 | +9.519 | 1.18738 | | 98s, two-tone | 45.078 | 50.801 | -5.723 | 0.88734 | | 98s, monotone | 46.259 | 50.801 | -4.542 | 0.91059 | | 98s, paired | 38.396 | 50.801 | -12.405 | 0.75581 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Split by suits, the deals give A7s 57.93% when the hands overlap in a suit and 55.52% when they do not. A7s does better with a shared suit, by 2.41 points. **A7s against 98s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | A7s wins | Ties | 98s wins | A7s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 4 | 25.00 | 57.662 | 0.529 | 41.809 | 57.927 | | No shared suit | 12 | 75.00 | 55.306 | 0.432 | 44.262 | 55.522 | ## How often this matchup comes up This page stands for 16 specific-card matchups (0.0010% of 1,624,350 ordered deals), or 32 once you count the seats both ways (0.0020%). ## A worked example Worked example: both players commit $100, so $200 sits in the middle. Over every board, A7s' average share is $112.24 (a gain of $12.24) and 98s' is $87.76 (a loss of $12.24). Run 1,000 deals and the tally comes out near 559 for A7s, 436 for 98s and 5 ties. ## The same matchup from the other side 98s against A7s adds nothing new: it is 43.88% for 98s and 56.12% for A7s, the same figures reversed. ## Keep exploring Open the calculator with As7s 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. - [Open As7s against 9h8h in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=As7s&p2=9h8h) - [A7s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a7s.md) - [98s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/98s.md) - [A7s vs 22](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a7s-vs-22.md) - [A7s vs 97s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a7s-vs-97s.md) - [A9o vs 98s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9o-vs-98s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed We counted every case. Each suit pattern of the 16 specific A7s against 98s 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. ## Related - [A7s vs 22: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a7s-vs-22.md) - [A7s vs 97s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a7s-vs-97s.md) - [A9o vs 98s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9o-vs-98s.md)