ATs vs 98s: preflop equity

The exact count puts ATs at 61.88% and 98s at 38.12% when the two hands see all five board cards.

ATs

61.88%

Wins 61.65%, ties 0.47%

98s

38.12%

Wins 37.88%, ties 0.47%

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

ATs against 98s: the numbers

Exact preflop results for ATs against 98s, in percent
HandWinsTiesLosesEquity
ATs61.6510.46537.88461.883
98s37.8840.46561.65138.117

The matchup is suited hands on both sides, ATs against 98s. With no overlap in ranks, every card that pairs one hand is a card that does not pair the other.

The lead is steady rather than large, and the flop still has plenty of say in who wins. 0.47% of boards are ties, so the equity of each hand is its win rate plus half of that.

Ranked by equity against a random hand, ATs is number 13 of the 169 starting hands and 98s is number 83.

Boards behind the percentages: 27,396,864 counted in all
HandBoards won, aboutBoards tied, aboutBoards lost, about
ATs16,890,000127,00010,379,000
98s10,379,000127,00016,890,000

The board total is exact, 16 deals at 1,712,304 boards each. Won, tied and lost counts are rounded to the nearest thousand from the five-decimal percentages.

ATs against 98s read as odds
HandEquity as odds (to 1)Wins one deal inLoses one deal inPot odds needed to call (to 1)
ATs1.6241.6222.6400.616
98s0.6162.6401.6221.624

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

Rainbow flops topped by a ten or better are the best for ATs (67.26%); low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) are the worst (41.43%). 98s is ahead on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower), even though it trails ATs when every flop is counted.

ATs against 98s by flop texture, in percent
FlopShare of flopsATs winsTies98s winsATs equity
Rainbow, ten or higher24.59567.1690.17432.65767.256
Rainbow, nine or lower6.31441.1770.49658.32741.425
Two-tone46.72760.9900.22038.79061.100
Monotone5.27357.3373.39239.27159.033
Paired17.09164.4120.63734.95164.730

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

The table below sets each hand against its own random-hand baseline: a change of -2.72 points for ATs, from 64.60%, and -12.68 for 98s, from 50.80%.

ATs and 98s here compared with each against a random hand, in percent
CaseEquity hereAgainst a random handChange in pointsTimes the random-hand equity
ATs, all flops61.88364.602-2.7190.95791
ATs, rainbow, ten or higher67.25664.602+2.6541.04108
ATs, rainbow, nine or lower41.42564.602-23.1770.64123
ATs, two-tone61.10064.602-3.5020.94579
ATs, monotone59.03364.602-5.5690.91380
ATs, paired64.73064.602+0.1281.00198
98s, all flops38.11750.801-12.6840.75032
98s, rainbow, ten or higher32.74450.801-18.0570.64455
98s, rainbow, nine or lower58.57550.801+7.7741.15303
98s, two-tone38.90050.801-11.9010.76573
98s, monotone40.96750.801-9.8340.80642
98s, paired35.27050.801-15.5310.69428

Does a shared suit matter?

Two kinds of deal exist here. In 4 of them the hands share a suit and ATs holds 64.16%. In 12 they do not, and it holds 61.12%. ATs does better with a shared suit, by 3.04 points.

ATs against 98s by suit overlap, in percent
DealsSpecific dealsShare of dealsATs winsTies98s winsATs equity
Share a suit425.0063.8920.53835.57064.161
No shared suit1275.0060.9040.44038.65661.124

How often this matchup comes up

Out of 1,624,350 ways to deal two seats two cards each, 16 are ATs in one seat and 98s in the other (0.0010%); with the seats swapped too, 32 (0.0020%).

A worked example

With $100 from each side, the $200 pot is split on average as $123.76 for ATs and $76.24 for 98s; the first side gains $23.76 per all-in and the second gives up $23.76.

Out of 1,000 deals you should see around 616 outright wins for ATs, 379 for 98s, and 5 split pots.

The same matchup from the other side

The reversed view, 98s against ATs, shows 38.12% for 98s and 61.88% for ATs. It is the same count, so it redirects here.

The calculator link fills in AsTs against 9h8h, 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

Each figure is a complete count over boards. Take the 16 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.

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