--- title: "A8s vs 55: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-55.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-55" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "A8s vs 55 is close to a coin flip before the flop: 47.42% to 52.58% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-qjs.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-k9s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kts-vs-55.md"] --- # A8s vs 55: preflop equity A8s vs 55 is close to a coin flip before the flop: 47.42% to 52.58% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Dealt all in against each other, 55 takes 52.58% of the pot on average and A8s takes the other 47.42%. ## A8s against 55: the numbers **Exact preflop results for A8s against 55, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A8s | 47.188 | 0.471 | 52.341 | 47.423 | | 55 | 52.341 | 0.471 | 47.188 | 52.577 | Here a suited hand (A8s) meets a pocket pair (55). One hand holds a pair and the other holds two cards that both outrank it, which keeps the equity closer than most people expect. With only 5.16 points between them, the board decides this matchup far more than the cards in hand. Of every 100 boards, about 0.47 are split pots, and the equity figures already include them. The hand ranking puts A8s at 21 and 55 at 27 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A8s | 19,392,000 | 194,000 | 21,510,000 | | 55 | 21,510,000 | 194,000 | 19,392,000 | 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. **A8s against 55 read as odds** | Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A8s | 0.902 | 2.119 | 1.911 | 1.109 | | 55 | 1.109 | 1.911 | 2.119 | 0.902 | 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 55 prefers low rainbow flops (nine high or lower), where it holds 61.44%, and likes two-tone flops least, where it holds 51.17%. 55 stays ahead on all five textures. **A8s against 55 by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | A8s wins | Ties | 55 wins | A8s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.220 | 48.164 | 0.247 | 51.589 | 48.287 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.689 | 38.223 | 0.678 | 61.099 | 38.562 | | Two-tone | 46.545 | 48.683 | 0.304 | 51.013 | 48.835 | | Monotone | 5.212 | 46.839 | 2.599 | 50.562 | 48.139 | | Paired | 17.334 | 44.798 | 0.540 | 54.662 | 45.068 | 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 -14.52 points for A8s, from 61.94%, and -7.75 for 55, from 60.33%. **A8s and 55 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A8s, all flops | 47.423 | 61.944 | -14.521 | 0.76558 | | A8s, rainbow, ten or higher | 48.287 | 61.944 | -13.657 | 0.77953 | | A8s, rainbow, nine or lower | 38.562 | 61.944 | -23.382 | 0.62253 | | A8s, two-tone | 48.835 | 61.944 | -13.109 | 0.78837 | | A8s, monotone | 48.139 | 61.944 | -13.805 | 0.77714 | | A8s, paired | 45.068 | 61.944 | -16.876 | 0.72756 | | 55, all flops | 52.577 | 60.325 | -7.748 | 0.87156 | | 55, rainbow, ten or higher | 51.713 | 60.325 | -8.612 | 0.85724 | | 55, rainbow, nine or lower | 61.438 | 60.325 | +1.113 | 1.01845 | | 55, two-tone | 51.165 | 60.325 | -9.160 | 0.84816 | | 55, monotone | 51.861 | 60.325 | -8.464 | 0.85969 | | 55, paired | 54.932 | 60.325 | -5.393 | 0.91060 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Two kinds of deal exist here. In 12 of them the hands share a suit and 55 holds 52.75%. In 12 they do not, and it holds 52.40%. 55 does better with a shared suit, by 0.35 points. **A8s against 55 by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | A8s wins | Ties | 55 wins | A8s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 12 | 50.00 | 46.990 | 0.511 | 52.499 | 47.246 | | No shared suit | 12 | 50.00 | 47.385 | 0.432 | 52.183 | 47.601 | ## How often this matchup comes up You will meet this exact matchup 0.0030% of the time in a random heads-up deal: 48 of 1,624,350, counting either seat order. ## A worked example With $100 from each side, the $200 pot is split on average as $105.16 for 55 and $94.84 for A8s; the first side gains $5.16 per all-in and the second gives up $5.16. Think in thousands: about 523 of 1,000 go to 55, about 472 go to A8s, and about 5 are chopped. ## The same matchup from the other side If you came looking for 55 against A8s, the numbers are the same with the hands swapped: 52.58% and 47.42%. ## Keep exploring Open the calculator with As8s against 5h5d 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 As8s against 5h5d in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=As8s&p2=5h5d) - [A8s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a8s.md) - [55 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/55.md) - [A8s vs QJs](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-qjs.md) - [A8s vs K9s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-k9s.md) - [KTs vs 55](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kts-vs-55.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed The figures are counted, not estimated: 1,712,304 boards for every suit pattern of the 24 specific deals, with both seven-card hands compared each time. Equity gives half a win for a tie. For the flop rows, a board is counted once under each of the ten flops inside it. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [A8s vs QJs: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-qjs.md) - [A8s vs K9s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-k9s.md) - [KTs vs 55: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kts-vs-55.md)