--- title: "KK vs 98s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kk-vs-98s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kk-vs-98s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "KK is a big favorite over 98s before the flop: 78.25% to 21.75% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kk-vs-22.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kk-vs-97s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qq-vs-98s.md"] --- # KK vs 98s: preflop equity KK is a big favorite over 98s before the flop: 78.25% to 21.75% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. The exact count puts KK at 78.25% and 98s at 21.75% when the two hands see all five board cards. ## KK against 98s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for KK against 98s, in percent** | 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. **Boards behind the percentages: 41,095,296 counted in all** | 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. **KK 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) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 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. **KK against 98s by flop texture, in percent** | 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. **KK 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 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. **KK against 98s by suit overlap, in percent** | 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. - [Open KsKh against 9d8d in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=KsKh&p2=9d8d) - [KK combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/kk.md) - [98s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/98s.md) - [KK vs 22](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kk-vs-22.md) - [KK vs 97s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kk-vs-97s.md) - [QQ vs 98s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qq-vs-98s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## 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. ## Related - [KK vs 22: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kk-vs-22.md) - [KK vs 97s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kk-vs-97s.md) - [QQ vs 98s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qq-vs-98s.md)