A8s vs J9s: preflop equity

Before any board card is dealt, A8s holds 56.90% equity against J9s, which leaves J9s with 43.10%.

A8s

56.90%

Wins 56.66%, ties 0.47%

J9s

43.10%

Wins 42.87%, ties 0.47%

Equity counts a tie as half a win. Exact over every board.

A8s against J9s: the numbers

Exact preflop results for A8s against J9s, in percent
HandWinsTiesLosesEquity
A8s56.6610.47142.86856.897
J9s42.8680.47156.66143.103

A8s and J9s are both suited hands. With no overlap in ranks, every card that pairs one hand is a card that does not pair the other.

That is a modest edge, the kind that shows up over many hands and is easy to miss in one. Ties are 0.47% of the outcomes here; each tied board gives both hands half the pot.

In the ranking of all 169 starting hands, A8s is number 21 and J9s is number 55.

Boards behind the percentages: 27,396,864 counted in all
HandBoards won, aboutBoards tied, aboutBoards lost, about
A8s15,523,000129,00011,744,000
J9s11,744,000129,00015,523,000

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 J9s read as odds
HandEquity as odds (to 1)Wins one deal inLoses one deal inPot odds needed to call (to 1)
A8s1.3201.7652.3330.758
J9s0.7582.3331.7651.320

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

Across the five flop textures A8s' equity moves by 7.62 points, from 54.41% on monotone flops to 62.03% on paired flops. A8s stays ahead on all five textures.

A8s against J9s by flop texture, in percent
FlopShare of flopsA8s winsTiesJ9s winsA8s equity
Rainbow, ten or higher24.54356.2970.15543.54856.375
Rainbow, nine or lower6.36655.3200.62744.05355.634
Two-tone46.72755.6330.22844.13955.747
Monotone5.27352.7123.39343.89554.409
Paired17.09161.7120.63337.65562.029

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

How much does the opponent matter? Compared with its random-hand 61.94%, A8s changes by -5.04 points, and J9s, from 55.66%, by -12.56.

A8s and J9s here compared with each against a random hand, in percent
CaseEquity hereAgainst a random handChange in pointsTimes the random-hand equity
A8s, all flops56.89761.944-5.0470.91852
A8s, rainbow, ten or higher56.37561.944-5.5690.91010
A8s, rainbow, nine or lower55.63461.944-6.3100.89813
A8s, two-tone55.74761.944-6.1970.89996
A8s, monotone54.40961.944-7.5350.87836
A8s, paired62.02961.944+0.0851.00137
J9s, all flops43.10355.662-12.5590.77437
J9s, rainbow, ten or higher43.62555.662-12.0370.78375
J9s, rainbow, nine or lower44.36655.662-11.2960.79706
J9s, two-tone44.25355.662-11.4090.79503
J9s, monotone45.59155.662-10.0710.81907
J9s, paired37.97155.662-17.6910.68217

Does a shared suit matter?

Looking only at deals where the hands share a suit, A8s has 58.78%; looking only at deals where they do not, 56.27%. A8s does better with a shared suit, by 2.51 points.

A8s against J9s by suit overlap, in percent
DealsSpecific dealsShare of dealsA8s winsTiesJ9s winsA8s equity
Share a suit425.0058.5040.54540.95158.777
No shared suit1275.0056.0460.44743.50756.270

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

To see what the equity is worth, imagine $100 each in a $200 pot. A8s is worth $113.80 on average (+$13.80); J9s is worth $86.20 (-$13.80).

Think in thousands: about 566 of 1,000 go to A8s, about 429 go to J9s, and about 5 are chopped.

The same matchup from the other side

The reversed view, J9s against A8s, shows 43.10% for J9s and 56.90% for A8s. It is the same count, so it redirects here.

The calculator link fills in As8s against Jh9h, a deal where the two hands share no suit. Change any card to test your own hand. The neighboring matchups below swap one of the two hands for one of similar strength.

How this was computed

All 1,712,304 five-card boards are dealt for every suit pattern among the 16 specific deals of A8s against J9s, and both hands are scored on each. That is a full count, so the percentages are exact. Ties are half a win each, and each board appears once per flop it contains.

Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used.

Bring your own hands to a session

Review the spots you actually play against these numbers in a Game Assessment, and leave with a one-page written plan.

Book a session