KK
78.25%
Wins 78.06%, ties 0.38%
98s
21.75%
Wins 21.56%, ties 0.38%
KK against 98s: the numbers
| Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| KK | 78.064 | 0.377 | 21.559 | 78.252 |
| 98s | 21.559 | 0.377 | 78.064 | 21.748 |
KK is a pocket pair and 98s is a suited hand. Here a pair faces two cards that are both smaller, so the other hand needs to pair up and still be behind.
That is a clear edge, 78.25% to 21.75%, but 98s still wins often enough that one hand proves nothing. 0.38% of boards are ties, so the equity of each hand is its win rate plus half of that.
Among the 169 starting hands, KK is number 2 and 98s is number 83 by strength against a random hand.
| Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about |
|---|---|---|---|
| KK | 32,081,000 | 155,000 | 8,860,000 |
| 98s | 8,860,000 | 155,000 | 32,081,000 |
24 specific deals times 1,712,304 boards gives the exact total. The won, tied and lost counts are approximations from the five-decimal percentages, rounded to the nearest thousand.
| Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| KK | 3.598 | 1.281 | 4.638 | 0.278 |
| 98s | 0.278 | 4.638 | 1.281 | 3.598 |
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
Across the five flop textures KK's equity moves by 9.63 points, from 72.72% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) to 82.35% on paired flops. KK stays ahead on all five textures.
| Flop | Share of flops | KK wins | Ties | 98s wins | KK equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rainbow, ten or higher | 24.595 | 81.403 | 0.204 | 18.393 | 81.505 |
| Rainbow, nine or lower | 6.314 | 72.345 | 0.757 | 26.898 | 72.724 |
| Two-tone | 46.545 | 76.181 | 0.296 | 23.523 | 76.329 |
| Monotone | 5.212 | 71.949 | 2.397 | 25.654 | 73.148 |
| Paired | 17.334 | 82.306 | 0.092 | 17.602 | 82.352 |
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
Start from the random-hand figures, 82.40% for KK and 50.80% for 98s. This opponent changes them by -4.15 and -29.05 points.
| Case | Equity here | Against a random hand | Change in points | Times the random-hand equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| KK, all flops | 78.252 | 82.396 | -4.144 | 0.94971 |
| KK, rainbow, ten or higher | 81.505 | 82.396 | -0.891 | 0.98919 |
| KK, rainbow, nine or lower | 72.724 | 82.396 | -9.672 | 0.88262 |
| KK, two-tone | 76.329 | 82.396 | -6.067 | 0.92637 |
| KK, monotone | 73.148 | 82.396 | -9.248 | 0.88776 |
| KK, paired | 82.352 | 82.396 | -0.044 | 0.99947 |
| 98s, all flops | 21.748 | 50.801 | -29.053 | 0.42810 |
| 98s, rainbow, ten or higher | 18.495 | 50.801 | -32.306 | 0.36407 |
| 98s, rainbow, nine or lower | 27.276 | 50.801 | -23.525 | 0.53692 |
| 98s, two-tone | 23.671 | 50.801 | -27.130 | 0.46596 |
| 98s, monotone | 26.852 | 50.801 | -23.949 | 0.52857 |
| 98s, paired | 17.648 | 50.801 | -33.153 | 0.34739 |
Does a shared suit matter?
When the hands share a suit, KK holds 78.82%; when they do not, it holds 77.69%. KK does better with a shared suit, by 1.13 points.
| Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | KK wins | Ties | 98s wins | KK equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Share a suit | 12 | 50.00 | 78.611 | 0.418 | 20.971 | 78.820 |
| No shared suit | 12 | 50.00 | 77.518 | 0.335 | 22.147 | 77.685 |
How often this matchup comes up
Counting specific cards, KK against 98s appears in 24 of the 1,624,350 ordered heads-up deals (0.0015%), and in 48 when the seats are swapped too (0.0030%).
A worked example
Put $100 each into a $200 pot and deal every board once: KK averages $156.50 back, ahead of its $100 by $56.50, while 98s averages $43.50, short of its $100 by $56.50.
Out of 1,000 deals you should see around 781 outright wins for KK, 215 for 98s, and 4 split pots.
The same matchup from the other side
98s against KK adds nothing new: it is 21.75% for 98s and 78.25% for KK, the same figures reversed.
Keep exploring
Open the calculator with KsKh 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.
How this was computed
We counted every case. Each suit pattern of the 24 specific KK against 98s deals meets all 1,712,304 boards, and the better five-card hand wins; a split pot is half a win each. The flop table reads each board under all ten of its three-card flops.
Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used.
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