--- title: "AQo vs 98s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aqo-vs-98s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aqo-vs-98s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "Who is ahead, AQo or 98s? AQo leads 59.29% to 40.71% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aqo-vs-22.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aqo-vs-97s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ajo-vs-98s.md"] --- # AQo vs 98s: preflop equity Who is ahead, AQo or 98s? AQo leads 59.29% to 40.71% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. The exact count puts AQo at 59.29% and 98s at 40.71% when the two hands see all five board cards. ## AQo against 98s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for AQo against 98s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AQo | 59.077 | 0.430 | 40.493 | 59.292 | | 98s | 40.493 | 0.430 | 59.077 | 40.708 | We compare an offsuit hand with a suited hand. With no overlap in ranks, every card that pairs one hand is a card that does not pair the other. AQo is ahead, but 98s is far from dead: it takes 405 of every 1,000 deals outright. About 0.43% of boards chop the pot, which is why equity sits slightly above the win figure for both hands. Among the 169 starting hands, AQo is number 14 and 98s is number 83 by strength against a random hand. **Boards behind the percentages: 82,190,592 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AQo | 48,556,000 | 353,000 | 33,281,000 | | 98s | 33,281,000 | 353,000 | 48,556,000 | The total is exact: 48 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. **AQo 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) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AQo | 1.457 | 1.693 | 2.470 | 0.687 | | 98s | 0.687 | 2.470 | 1.693 | 1.457 | 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 The flop changes the picture. AQo does best on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better, at 66.13%, and worst on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower), at 38.13%. 98s is ahead on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower), even though it trails AQo when every flop is counted. **AQo against 98s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | AQo wins | Ties | 98s wins | AQo equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 24.717 | 66.053 | 0.155 | 33.792 | 66.131 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 6.313 | 37.781 | 0.706 | 61.513 | 38.134 | | Two-tone | 46.667 | 57.561 | 0.249 | 42.190 | 57.685 | | Monotone | 5.212 | 56.534 | 2.362 | 41.104 | 57.715 | | Paired | 17.091 | 61.771 | 0.628 | 37.601 | 62.085 | 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 The table below sets each hand against its own random-hand baseline: a change of -5.14 points for AQo, from 64.43%, and -10.09 for 98s, from 50.80%. **AQo 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AQo, all flops | 59.292 | 64.432 | -5.140 | 0.92023 | | AQo, rainbow, ten or higher | 66.131 | 64.432 | +1.699 | 1.02637 | | AQo, rainbow, nine or lower | 38.134 | 64.432 | -26.298 | 0.59185 | | AQo, two-tone | 57.685 | 64.432 | -6.747 | 0.89528 | | AQo, monotone | 57.715 | 64.432 | -6.717 | 0.89575 | | AQo, paired | 62.085 | 64.432 | -2.347 | 0.96357 | | 98s, all flops | 40.708 | 50.801 | -10.093 | 0.80132 | | 98s, rainbow, ten or higher | 33.869 | 50.801 | -16.932 | 0.66670 | | 98s, rainbow, nine or lower | 61.866 | 50.801 | +11.065 | 1.21781 | | 98s, two-tone | 42.315 | 50.801 | -8.486 | 0.83296 | | 98s, monotone | 42.285 | 50.801 | -8.516 | 0.83237 | | 98s, paired | 37.915 | 50.801 | -12.886 | 0.74634 | ## Does a shared suit matter? The suit split reads 59.98% for AQo with a shared suit and 58.61% without one. AQo does better with a shared suit, by 1.37 points. **AQo against 98s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | AQo wins | Ties | 98s wins | AQo equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 24 | 50.00 | 59.741 | 0.471 | 39.788 | 59.976 | | No shared suit | 24 | 50.00 | 58.413 | 0.389 | 41.198 | 58.607 | ## How often this matchup comes up You will meet this exact matchup 0.0059% of the time in a random heads-up deal: 96 of 1,624,350, counting either seat order. ## A worked example Put $100 each into a $200 pot and deal every board once: AQo averages $118.58 back, ahead of its $100 by $18.58, while 98s averages $81.42, short of its $100 by $18.58. In 1,000 deals of exactly this matchup, expect about 591 won outright by AQo, about 405 won outright by 98s and about 4 split. ## The same matchup from the other side Swap the hands and you get 98s with 40.71% against AQo with 59.29%. We keep one page per matchup, with the better-ranked hand first. ## Keep exploring Open the calculator with AsQh 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 AsQh against 9d8d in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=AsQh&p2=9d8d) - [AQo combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/aqo.md) - [98s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/98s.md) - [AQo vs 22](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aqo-vs-22.md) - [AQo vs 97s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aqo-vs-97s.md) - [AJo vs 98s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ajo-vs-98s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed Each figure is a complete count over boards. Take the 48 specific deals, group them by suit pattern, deal all 1,712,304 boards against each, and compare the two seven-card hands. Equity counts a tie as half a win; the flop rows use every one of a board's ten flops. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [AQo vs 22: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aqo-vs-22.md) - [AQo vs 97s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aqo-vs-97s.md) - [AJo vs 98s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ajo-vs-98s.md)