--- title: "JTo vs 98s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/jto-vs-98s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/jto-vs-98s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "JTo is a big favorite over 98s before the flop: 62.39% to 37.61% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/jto-vs-22.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/jto-vs-97s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/t9s-vs-98s.md"] --- # JTo vs 98s: preflop equity JTo is a big favorite over 98s before the flop: 62.39% to 37.61% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Counting every board, the equity split is 62.39% for JTo and 37.61% for 98s, so JTo leads by 24.78 points. ## JTo against 98s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for JTo against 98s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | JTo | 61.813 | 1.145 | 37.042 | 62.386 | | 98s | 37.042 | 1.145 | 61.813 | 37.614 | JTo, an offsuit hand, plays 98s, a suited hand. 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. Split pots make up 1.15% of the boards, and both equity figures count them as half a win each. Place 57 of 169 belongs to JTo and place 83 belongs to 98s in the ranking against a random hand. **Boards behind the percentages: 82,190,592 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | JTo | 50,804,000 | 941,000 | 30,445,000 | | 98s | 30,445,000 | 941,000 | 50,804,000 | 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. **JTo 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) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | JTo | 1.659 | 1.618 | 2.700 | 0.603 | | 98s | 0.603 | 2.700 | 1.618 | 1.659 | The final column gives the least the pot must offer for each unit called for a call to break even at this equity. ## Who is ahead on which flops If you know the kind of flop that came, the numbers shift: JTo holds 69.43% on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better and 42.78% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower). 98s is ahead on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower), even though it trails JTo when every flop is counted. **JTo against 98s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | JTo wins | Ties | 98s wins | JTo equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 24.717 | 69.116 | 0.636 | 30.248 | 69.434 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 6.313 | 42.540 | 0.484 | 56.976 | 42.782 | | Two-tone | 46.667 | 60.926 | 0.569 | 38.505 | 61.211 | | Monotone | 5.212 | 59.210 | 2.612 | 38.178 | 60.516 | | Paired | 17.091 | 61.590 | 3.249 | 35.161 | 63.214 | Rainbow flops have three suits, two-tone flops repeat one suit, monotone flops are all one suit, and paired flops repeat a rank. ## Compared with a random hand Against one random hand instead, JTo holds 55.25% and 98s holds 50.80%. Facing each other changes that by +7.14 points for JTo and -13.19 points for 98s. **JTo 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | JTo, all flops | 62.386 | 55.248 | +7.138 | 1.12920 | | JTo, rainbow, ten or higher | 69.434 | 55.248 | +14.186 | 1.25677 | | JTo, rainbow, nine or lower | 42.782 | 55.248 | -12.466 | 0.77436 | | JTo, two-tone | 61.211 | 55.248 | +5.963 | 1.10793 | | JTo, monotone | 60.516 | 55.248 | +5.268 | 1.09535 | | JTo, paired | 63.214 | 55.248 | +7.966 | 1.14419 | | 98s, all flops | 37.614 | 50.801 | -13.187 | 0.74042 | | 98s, rainbow, ten or higher | 30.566 | 50.801 | -20.235 | 0.60168 | | 98s, rainbow, nine or lower | 57.218 | 50.801 | +6.417 | 1.12632 | | 98s, two-tone | 38.789 | 50.801 | -12.012 | 0.76355 | | 98s, monotone | 39.484 | 50.801 | -11.317 | 0.77723 | | 98s, paired | 36.786 | 50.801 | -14.015 | 0.72412 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Of the deals of this matchup, 24 share a suit (JTo at 63.07%) and 24 do not (61.70%). JTo does better with a shared suit, by 1.37 points. **JTo against 98s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | JTo wins | Ties | 98s wins | JTo equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 24 | 50.00 | 62.474 | 1.186 | 36.340 | 63.067 | | No shared suit | 24 | 50.00 | 61.153 | 1.103 | 37.744 | 61.704 | ## How often this matchup comes up The class pair covers 48 combinations of specific cards in a fixed seat order, 0.0030% of 1,624,350, and 96 (0.0059%) in either order. ## A worked example Take a $200 pot built from $100 each. JTo's equity of 62.39% is worth $124.78, a $24.78 edge, and 98s' 37.61% is worth $75.22, which is $24.78 under its stake. A thousand deals look like this: JTo takes 618, 98s takes 370, 12 are ties. ## The same matchup from the other side 98s against JTo adds nothing new: it is 37.61% for 98s and 62.39% for JTo, the same figures reversed. ## Keep exploring The calculator link fills in JsTh against 9d8d, 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. - [Open JsTh against 9d8d in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=JsTh&p2=9d8d) - [JTo combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/jto.md) - [98s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/98s.md) - [JTo vs 22](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/jto-vs-22.md) - [JTo vs 97s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/jto-vs-97s.md) - [T9s vs 98s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/t9s-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 - [JTo vs 22: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/jto-vs-22.md) - [JTo vs 97s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/jto-vs-97s.md) - [T9s vs 98s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/t9s-vs-98s.md)