--- title: "AJo vs 98s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ajo-vs-98s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ajo-vs-98s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "Who is ahead, AJo or 98s? AJo leads 59.20% to 40.80% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ajo-vs-22.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ajo-vs-97s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqs-vs-98s.md"] --- # AJo vs 98s: preflop equity Who is ahead, AJo or 98s? AJo leads 59.20% to 40.80% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Over all 1,712,304 boards that can follow this deal, AJo finishes with 59.20% of the pot and 98s with 40.80%. ## AJo against 98s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for AJo against 98s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AJo | 58.991 | 0.423 | 40.586 | 59.202 | | 98s | 40.586 | 0.423 | 58.991 | 40.798 | AJo is an offsuit hand and 98s is a suited hand. The two hands share no rank, which makes this a pure matchup of card strength, straight chances and flush chances. AJo is ahead, but 98s is far from dead: it takes 406 of every 1,000 deals outright. 0.42% of boards are ties, so the equity of each hand is its win rate plus half of that. For context, AJo sits at number 15 of 169 starting hands and 98s at number 83 when each is run against a random hand. **Boards behind the percentages: 82,190,592 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AJo | 48,485,000 | 348,000 | 33,358,000 | | 98s | 33,358,000 | 348,000 | 48,485,000 | The board total is exact, 48 deals at 1,712,304 boards each. Won, tied and lost counts are rounded to the nearest thousand from the five-decimal percentages. **AJo 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) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AJo | 1.451 | 1.695 | 2.464 | 0.689 | | 98s | 0.689 | 2.464 | 1.695 | 1.451 | 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 The flop changes the picture. AJo does best on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better, at 65.85%, and worst on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower), at 38.42%. Watch for low rainbow flops (nine high or lower): on those flops 98s holds the better equity. **AJo against 98s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | AJo wins | Ties | 98s wins | AJo equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 24.717 | 65.772 | 0.158 | 34.070 | 65.851 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 6.313 | 38.100 | 0.645 | 61.255 | 38.423 | | Two-tone | 46.667 | 57.431 | 0.240 | 42.329 | 57.551 | | Monotone | 5.212 | 56.445 | 2.355 | 41.200 | 57.623 | | Paired | 17.091 | 61.937 | 0.632 | 37.431 | 62.253 | 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 Each hand has a baseline against a random hand: 63.56% for AJo, 50.80% for 98s. Here the change is -4.36 and -10.00 points. **AJo 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AJo, all flops | 59.202 | 63.563 | -4.361 | 0.93139 | | AJo, rainbow, ten or higher | 65.851 | 63.563 | +2.288 | 1.03600 | | AJo, rainbow, nine or lower | 38.423 | 63.563 | -25.140 | 0.60449 | | AJo, two-tone | 57.551 | 63.563 | -6.012 | 0.90542 | | AJo, monotone | 57.623 | 63.563 | -5.940 | 0.90655 | | AJo, paired | 62.253 | 63.563 | -1.310 | 0.97939 | | 98s, all flops | 40.798 | 50.801 | -10.003 | 0.80309 | | 98s, rainbow, ten or higher | 34.149 | 50.801 | -16.652 | 0.67221 | | 98s, rainbow, nine or lower | 61.577 | 50.801 | +10.776 | 1.21212 | | 98s, two-tone | 42.449 | 50.801 | -8.352 | 0.83559 | | 98s, monotone | 42.377 | 50.801 | -8.424 | 0.83418 | | 98s, paired | 37.747 | 50.801 | -13.054 | 0.74304 | ## Does a shared suit matter? When the hands share a suit, AJo holds 59.87%; when they do not, it holds 58.53%. AJo does better with a shared suit, by 1.34 points. **AJo against 98s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | AJo wins | Ties | 98s wins | AJo equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 24 | 50.00 | 59.638 | 0.464 | 39.898 | 59.870 | | No shared suit | 24 | 50.00 | 58.343 | 0.382 | 41.275 | 58.534 | ## How often this matchup comes up Exactly 48 specific deals fit this matchup in one seat order, which is 0.0030% of 1,624,350; both orders together give 96, or 0.0059%. ## A worked example A $100 all-in from each player makes a $200 pot, and the exact equity says AJo gets $118.40 of it on average and 98s gets $81.60. In 1,000 deals of exactly this matchup, expect about 590 won outright by AJo, about 406 won outright by 98s and about 4 split. ## The same matchup from the other side 98s versus AJo is this same page seen from the other hand: 40.80% for 98s, 59.20% for AJo. ## Keep exploring Open the calculator with AsJh against 9d8d 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 AsJh against 9d8d in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=AsJh&p2=9d8d) - [AJo combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/ajo.md) - [98s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/98s.md) - [AJo vs 22](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ajo-vs-22.md) - [AJo vs 97s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ajo-vs-97s.md) - [KQs vs 98s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqs-vs-98s.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 48 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 - [AJo vs 22: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ajo-vs-22.md) - [AJo vs 97s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ajo-vs-97s.md) - [KQs vs 98s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqs-vs-98s.md)