---
title: "A9s vs 98s: preflop equity"
url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-98s.md"
canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-98s"
last_updated: "2026-10-23"
type: "reference"
summary: "A9s is a big favorite over 98s before the flop: 67.59% to 32.41% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit."
related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-22.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-97s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ato-vs-98s.md"]
---

# A9s vs 98s: preflop equity

A9s is a big favorite over 98s before the flop: 67.59% to 32.41% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit.

Before any board card is dealt, A9s holds 67.59% equity against 98s, which leaves 98s with 32.41%.

## A9s against 98s: the numbers

**Exact preflop results for A9s against 98s, in percent**

| Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| A9s | 66.578 | 2.027 | 31.395 | 67.591 |
| 98s | 31.395 | 2.027 | 66.578 | 32.409 |

Both hands are suited hands: A9s and 98s. Sharing a rank is the signature of a dominated hand, since the weaker hand is usually out-kicked when the shared rank shows up.

A lead of 35.18 points is large but not decisive: 98s still takes about 314 of every 1,000 deals. Ties are part of the picture: 2.03% of boards end in a split pot, and each side counts that as half a win.

By strength against a random hand, A9s holds place 18 of 169 and 98s holds place 83.

**Boards behind the percentages: 20,547,648 counted in all**

| Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| A9s | 13,680,000 | 417,000 | 6,451,000 |
| 98s | 6,451,000 | 417,000 | 13,680,000 |

Exact total: 12 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.

**A9s 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) |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| A9s | 2.086 | 1.502 | 3.185 | 0.479 |
| 98s | 0.479 | 3.185 | 1.502 | 2.086 |

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

If you know the kind of flop that came, the numbers shift: A9s holds 72.35% on paired flops and 55.65% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower). A9s stays ahead on all five textures, but the swing between them is large, so how the flop looks matters a great deal.

**A9s against 98s by flop texture, in percent**

| Flop | Share of flops | A9s wins | Ties | 98s wins | A9s equity |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.254 | 70.198 | 1.689 | 28.113 | 71.043 |
| Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.654 | 54.077 | 3.140 | 42.783 | 55.647 |
| Two-tone | 46.543 | 65.206 | 1.715 | 33.079 | 66.063 |
| Monotone | 5.215 | 59.587 | 4.166 | 36.247 | 61.670 |
| Paired | 17.334 | 71.170 | 2.349 | 26.481 | 72.345 |

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

How much does the opponent matter? Compared with its random-hand 62.78%, A9s changes by +4.81 points, and 98s, from 50.80%, by -18.39.

**A9s 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| A9s, all flops | 67.591 | 62.781 | +4.810 | 1.07662 |
| A9s, rainbow, ten or higher | 71.043 | 62.781 | +8.262 | 1.13160 |
| A9s, rainbow, nine or lower | 55.647 | 62.781 | -7.134 | 0.88637 |
| A9s, two-tone | 66.063 | 62.781 | +3.282 | 1.05228 |
| A9s, monotone | 61.670 | 62.781 | -1.111 | 0.98230 |
| A9s, paired | 72.345 | 62.781 | +9.564 | 1.15234 |
| 98s, all flops | 32.409 | 50.801 | -18.392 | 0.63796 |
| 98s, rainbow, ten or higher | 28.957 | 50.801 | -21.844 | 0.57001 |
| 98s, rainbow, nine or lower | 44.353 | 50.801 | -6.448 | 0.87307 |
| 98s, two-tone | 33.937 | 50.801 | -16.864 | 0.66804 |
| 98s, monotone | 38.330 | 50.801 | -12.471 | 0.75451 |
| 98s, paired | 27.655 | 50.801 | -23.146 | 0.54438 |

## Does a shared suit matter?

For this pair the shared-suit row is empty: the two hands cannot both own a card of one suit without reusing a card.

**A9s against 98s by suit overlap, in percent**

| Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | A9s wins | Ties | 98s wins | A9s equity |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Share a suit | 0 | 0.00 | not possible | not possible | not possible | not possible |
| No shared suit | 12 | 100.00 | 66.578 | 2.027 | 31.395 | 67.591 |

## How often this matchup comes up

The class pair covers 12 combinations of specific cards in a fixed seat order, 0.0007% of 1,624,350, and 24 (0.0015%) in either order.

## A worked example

Worked example: both players commit $100, so $200 sits in the middle. Over every board, A9s' average share is $135.18 (a gain of $35.18) and 98s' is $64.82 (a loss of $35.18).

Run 1,000 deals and the tally comes out near 666 for A9s, 314 for 98s and 20 ties.

## The same matchup from the other side

Swap the hands and you get 98s with 32.41% against A9s with 67.59%. We keep one page per matchup, with the better-ranked hand first.

## Keep exploring

Try As9s against 9h8h 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 As9s against 9h8h in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=As9s&p2=9h8h)
- [A9s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a9s.md)
- [98s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/98s.md)
- [A9s vs 22](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-22.md)
- [A9s vs 97s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-97s.md)
- [ATo vs 98s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ato-vs-98s.md)
- [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md)

## How this was computed

This is an exact count with no sampling. For the 12 ways to deal one A9s and one 98s without reusing a card, grouped by suit pattern, every one of the 1,712,304 possible boards is dealt and both seven-card hands are compared. A tie counts as half a win in the equity column, and each board is counted once under each of its ten three-card flops.

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

## Related

- [A9s vs 22: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-22.md)
- [A9s vs 97s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-97s.md)
- [ATo vs 98s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ato-vs-98s.md)