---
title: "A8s vs 97s: preflop equity"
url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-97s.md"
canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-97s"
last_updated: "2026-10-23"
type: "reference"
summary: "A8s is a big favorite over 97s before the flop: 60.01% to 39.99% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit."
related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-87s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-86s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kts-vs-97s.md"]
---

# A8s vs 97s: preflop equity

A8s is a big favorite over 97s before the flop: 60.01% to 39.99% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit.

Dealt all in against each other, A8s takes 60.01% of the pot on average and 97s takes the other 39.99%.

## A8s against 97s: the numbers

**Exact preflop results for A8s against 97s, in percent**

| Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| A8s | 59.783 | 0.457 | 39.760 | 60.012 |
| 97s | 39.760 | 0.457 | 59.783 | 39.988 |

Here suited hands face each other, A8s on one side and 97s on the other. The two hands share no rank, which makes this a pure matchup of card strength, straight chances and flush chances.

The lead is steady rather than large, and the flop still has plenty of say in who wins. About 0.46% of boards chop the pot, which is why equity sits slightly above the win figure for both hands.

A8s ranks number 21 of 169 starting hands, and 97s ranks number 94, 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| A8s | 16,379,000 | 125,000 | 10,893,000 |
| 97s | 10,893,000 | 125,000 | 16,379,000 |

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.

**A8s against 97s 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 | 1.501 | 1.673 | 2.515 | 0.666 |
| 97s | 0.666 | 2.515 | 1.673 | 1.501 |

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

If you know the kind of flop that came, the numbers shift: A8s holds 63.99% on paired flops and 44.19% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower). A8s is the favorite overall but falls behind on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower).

**A8s against 97s by flop texture, in percent**

| Flop | Share of flops | A8s wins | Ties | 97s wins | A8s equity |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.220 | 63.229 | 0.200 | 36.571 | 63.329 |
| Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.689 | 44.018 | 0.341 | 55.641 | 44.188 |
| Two-tone | 46.727 | 58.916 | 0.209 | 40.875 | 59.020 |
| Monotone | 5.273 | 55.415 | 3.385 | 41.200 | 57.108 |
| Paired | 17.091 | 63.665 | 0.649 | 35.686 | 63.989 |

Read the flop types this way: rainbow has three suits, two-tone has two cards of one suit, monotone has three, and paired repeats a rank.

## Compared with a random hand

Each hand has a baseline against a random hand: 61.94% for A8s, 49.12% for 97s. Here the change is -1.93 and -9.13 points.

**A8s and 97s 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 | 60.012 | 61.944 | -1.932 | 0.96881 |
| A8s, rainbow, ten or higher | 63.329 | 61.944 | +1.385 | 1.02236 |
| A8s, rainbow, nine or lower | 44.188 | 61.944 | -17.756 | 0.71335 |
| A8s, two-tone | 59.020 | 61.944 | -2.924 | 0.95280 |
| A8s, monotone | 57.108 | 61.944 | -4.836 | 0.92193 |
| A8s, paired | 63.989 | 61.944 | +2.045 | 1.03301 |
| 97s, all flops | 39.988 | 49.118 | -9.130 | 0.81412 |
| 97s, rainbow, ten or higher | 36.671 | 49.118 | -12.447 | 0.74659 |
| 97s, rainbow, nine or lower | 55.812 | 49.118 | +6.694 | 1.13628 |
| 97s, two-tone | 40.980 | 49.118 | -8.138 | 0.83432 |
| 97s, monotone | 42.892 | 49.118 | -6.226 | 0.87324 |
| 97s, paired | 36.011 | 49.118 | -13.107 | 0.73315 |

## Does a shared suit matter?

The suit split reads 62.18% for A8s with a shared suit and 59.29% without one. A8s does better with a shared suit, by 2.89 points.

**A8s against 97s by suit overlap, in percent**

| Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | A8s wins | Ties | 97s wins | A8s equity |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Share a suit | 4 | 25.00 | 61.917 | 0.529 | 37.554 | 62.181 |
| No shared suit | 12 | 75.00 | 59.072 | 0.433 | 40.495 | 59.288 |

## 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

Put $100 each into a $200 pot and deal every board once: A8s averages $120.02 back, ahead of its $100 by $20.02, while 97s averages $79.98, short of its $100 by $20.02.

In 1,000 deals of exactly this matchup, expect about 598 won outright by A8s, about 398 won outright by 97s and about 4 split.

## The same matchup from the other side

The mirror image, 97s against A8s, is 39.99% to 60.01%, and its address redirects to this page.

## Keep exploring

Try As8s against 9h7h 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 As8s against 9h7h in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=As8s&p2=9h7h)
- [A8s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a8s.md)
- [97s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/97s.md)
- [A8s vs 87s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-87s.md)
- [A8s vs 86s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-86s.md)
- [KTs vs 97s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kts-vs-97s.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 16 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

- [A8s vs 87s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-87s.md)
- [A8s vs 86s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-86s.md)
- [KTs vs 97s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kts-vs-97s.md)