--- title: "KK vs 88: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kk-vs-88.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kk-vs-88" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "KK is a big favorite over 88 before the flop: 80.87% to 19.13% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kk-vs-aks.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kk-vs-77.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qq-vs-88.md"] --- # KK vs 88: preflop equity KK is a big favorite over 88 before the flop: 80.87% to 19.13% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Before any board card is dealt, KK holds 80.87% equity against 88, which leaves 88 with 19.13%. ## KK against 88: the numbers **Exact preflop results for KK against 88, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | KK | 80.681 | 0.380 | 18.939 | 80.871 | | 88 | 18.939 | 0.380 | 80.681 | 19.129 | Both hands are pocket pairs: KK and 88. Both hands are pairs, so the bigger pair is ahead on every board that does not pair a card below it. A gap this wide means 88 is in trouble before the flop and has few good runouts. 0.38% of boards are ties, so the equity of each hand is its win rate plus half of that. The hand ranking puts KK at 2 and 88 at 7 out of 169 starting hands. **Boards behind the percentages: 61,642,944 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | KK | 49,734,000 | 234,000 | 11,675,000 | | 88 | 11,675,000 | 234,000 | 49,734,000 | The total is exact: 36 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. **KK against 88 read as odds** | Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | KK | 4.228 | 1.239 | 5.280 | 0.237 | | 88 | 0.237 | 5.280 | 1.239 | 4.228 | 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 Paired flops are the best for KK (86.45%); low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) are the worst (67.86%). KK stays ahead on all five textures, but the swing between them is large, so how the flop looks matters a great deal. **KK against 88 by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | KK wins | Ties | 88 wins | KK equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 24.595 | 83.407 | 0.214 | 16.379 | 83.514 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 6.314 | 67.392 | 0.941 | 31.667 | 67.862 | | Two-tone | 46.363 | 79.577 | 0.348 | 20.075 | 79.751 | | Monotone | 5.152 | 74.388 | 1.730 | 23.882 | 75.253 | | Paired | 17.576 | 86.397 | 0.100 | 13.503 | 86.447 | A rainbow flop shows three suits, a two-tone flop repeats one suit, a monotone flop is a single suit, and a paired flop repeats a rank. ## Compared with a random hand A random hand would give KK 82.40% and 88 69.16%. Against each other the change is -1.53 points for KK and -50.03 for 88. **KK and 88 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | KK, all flops | 80.871 | 82.396 | -1.525 | 0.98149 | | KK, rainbow, ten or higher | 83.514 | 82.396 | +1.118 | 1.01357 | | KK, rainbow, nine or lower | 67.862 | 82.396 | -14.534 | 0.82361 | | KK, two-tone | 79.751 | 82.396 | -2.645 | 0.96790 | | KK, monotone | 75.253 | 82.396 | -7.143 | 0.91331 | | KK, paired | 86.447 | 82.396 | +4.051 | 1.04917 | | 88, all flops | 19.129 | 69.163 | -50.034 | 0.27658 | | 88, rainbow, ten or higher | 16.486 | 69.163 | -52.677 | 0.23836 | | 88, rainbow, nine or lower | 32.138 | 69.163 | -37.025 | 0.46467 | | 88, two-tone | 20.249 | 69.163 | -48.914 | 0.29277 | | 88, monotone | 24.747 | 69.163 | -44.416 | 0.35781 | | 88, paired | 13.553 | 69.163 | -55.610 | 0.19596 | ## Does a shared suit matter? The suit split reads 81.01% for KK with a shared suit and 80.20% without one. KK does better with a shared suit, by 0.81 points. **KK against 88 by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | KK wins | Ties | 88 wins | KK equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 30 | 83.33 | 80.806 | 0.397 | 18.797 | 81.005 | | No shared suit | 6 | 16.67 | 80.054 | 0.300 | 19.646 | 80.204 | ## How often this matchup comes up The class pair covers 36 combinations of specific cards in a fixed seat order, 0.0022% of 1,624,350, and 72 (0.0044%) in either order. ## A worked example With $100 from each side, the $200 pot is split on average as $161.74 for KK and $38.26 for 88; the first side gains $61.74 per all-in and the second gives up $61.74. Think in thousands: about 807 of 1,000 go to KK, about 189 go to 88, and about 4 are chopped. ## The same matchup from the other side Swap the hands and you get 88 with 19.13% against KK with 80.87%. We keep one page per matchup, with the better-ranked hand first. ## Keep exploring KsKh against 8d8c is a ready-made deal for the calculator, with no suit in common between the hands. The neighboring matchups below replace one hand with another of similar strength. - [Open KsKh against 8d8c in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=KsKh&p2=8d8c) - [KK combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/kk.md) - [88 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/88.md) - [KK vs AKs](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kk-vs-aks.md) - [KK vs 77](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kk-vs-77.md) - [QQ vs 88](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qq-vs-88.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed Nothing here is simulated. The 36 deals of KK against 88 fall into a few suit patterns, each dealt against all 1,712,304 boards, with both best five-card hands compared on every board. Ties give each hand half a win, and the flop rows count a board under each of its ten flops. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [KK vs AKs: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kk-vs-aks.md) - [KK vs 77: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kk-vs-77.md) - [QQ vs 88: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qq-vs-88.md)