KQo vs 98s: preflop equity

In equity, KQo against 98s stands at 60.36% to 39.64%, a gap of 20.72 points.

KQo

60.36%

Wins 60.03%, ties 0.66%

98s

39.64%

Wins 39.31%, ties 0.66%

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

KQo against 98s: the numbers

Exact preflop results for KQo against 98s, in percent
HandWinsTiesLosesEquity
KQo60.0280.65839.31460.357
98s39.3140.65860.02839.643

KQo is an offsuit hand and 98s is a suited hand. The two hands share no rank, which makes this a pure matchup of card strength, straight chances and flush chances.

A 20.72 point lead is real, and 98s still takes about 393 of every 1,000 deals outright. Of every 100 boards, about 0.66 are split pots, and the equity figures already include them.

Place 23 of 169 belongs to KQo and place 83 belongs to 98s in the ranking against a random hand.

Boards behind the percentages: 82,190,592 counted in all
HandBoards won, aboutBoards tied, aboutBoards lost, about
KQo49,337,000541,00032,312,000
98s32,312,000541,00049,337,000

Exact total: 48 deals times 1,712,304 boards. The other three counts come from the five-decimal percentages and are rounded to the nearest thousand, so read them as approximate.

KQo against 98s read as odds
HandEquity as odds (to 1)Wins one deal inLoses one deal inPot odds needed to call (to 1)
KQo1.5231.6662.5440.657
98s0.6572.5441.6661.523

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

If you know the kind of flop that came, the numbers shift: KQo holds 67.78% on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better and 37.98% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower). 98s takes over on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower), so the favorite before the flop is the underdog on those boards.

KQo against 98s by flop texture, in percent
FlopShare of flopsKQo winsTies98s winsKQo equity
Rainbow, ten or higher24.71767.6290.30332.06867.781
Rainbow, nine or lower6.31337.6100.74061.65037.980
Two-tone46.66758.7090.36640.92558.892
Monotone5.21257.4132.45040.13758.638
Paired17.09161.7151.39136.89462.410

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

Start from the random-hand figures, 61.46% for KQo and 50.80% for 98s. This opponent changes them by -1.10 and -11.16 points.

KQo and 98s here compared with each against a random hand, in percent
CaseEquity hereAgainst a random handChange in pointsTimes the random-hand equity
KQo, all flops60.35761.456-1.0990.98212
KQo, rainbow, ten or higher67.78161.456+6.3251.10292
KQo, rainbow, nine or lower37.98061.456-23.4760.61800
KQo, two-tone58.89261.456-2.5640.95828
KQo, monotone58.63861.456-2.8180.95415
KQo, paired62.41061.456+0.9541.01552
98s, all flops39.64350.801-11.1580.78036
98s, rainbow, ten or higher32.21950.801-18.5820.63422
98s, rainbow, nine or lower62.02050.801+11.2191.22084
98s, two-tone41.10850.801-9.6930.80920
98s, monotone41.36250.801-9.4390.81420
98s, paired37.59050.801-13.2110.73995

Does a shared suit matter?

Split by suits, the deals give KQo 61.05% when the hands overlap in a suit and 59.66% when they do not. KQo does better with a shared suit, by 1.39 points.

KQo against 98s by suit overlap, in percent
DealsSpecific dealsShare of dealsKQo winsTies98s winsKQo equity
Share a suit2450.0060.7050.69938.59661.054
No shared suit2450.0059.3510.61740.03259.660

How often this matchup comes up

Counting specific cards, KQo against 98s appears in 48 of the 1,624,350 ordered heads-up deals (0.0030%), and in 96 when the seats are swapped too (0.0059%).

A worked example

Try it with money: two players each put in $100 and the whole board runs out every possible way. KQo averages $120.72 from the $200, up $20.72; 98s averages $79.28, down $20.72.

Run 1,000 deals and the tally comes out near 600 for KQo, 393 for 98s and 7 ties.

The same matchup from the other side

Swap the hands and you get 98s with 39.64% against KQo with 60.36%. We keep one page per matchup, with the better-ranked hand first.

Open the calculator with KsQh 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 48 specific KQo 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.

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