--- title: "KQo vs 98s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqo-vs-98s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqo-vs-98s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "KQo is a big favorite over 98s before the flop: 60.36% to 39.64% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqo-vs-22.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqo-vs-97s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a7s-vs-98s.md"] --- # KQo vs 98s: preflop equity KQo is a big favorite over 98s before the flop: 60.36% to 39.64% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. In equity, KQo against 98s stands at 60.36% to 39.64%, a gap of 20.72 points. ## KQo against 98s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for KQo against 98s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | KQo | 60.028 | 0.658 | 39.314 | 60.357 | | 98s | 39.314 | 0.658 | 60.028 | 39.643 | 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** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | KQo | 49,337,000 | 541,000 | 32,312,000 | | 98s | 32,312,000 | 541,000 | 49,337,000 | 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** | Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | KQo | 1.523 | 1.666 | 2.544 | 0.657 | | 98s | 0.657 | 2.544 | 1.666 | 1.523 | 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** | Flop | Share of flops | KQo wins | Ties | 98s wins | KQo equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 24.717 | 67.629 | 0.303 | 32.068 | 67.781 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 6.313 | 37.610 | 0.740 | 61.650 | 37.980 | | Two-tone | 46.667 | 58.709 | 0.366 | 40.925 | 58.892 | | Monotone | 5.212 | 57.413 | 2.450 | 40.137 | 58.638 | | Paired | 17.091 | 61.715 | 1.391 | 36.894 | 62.410 | 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** | Case | Equity here | Against a random hand | Change in points | Times the random-hand equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | KQo, all flops | 60.357 | 61.456 | -1.099 | 0.98212 | | KQo, rainbow, ten or higher | 67.781 | 61.456 | +6.325 | 1.10292 | | KQo, rainbow, nine or lower | 37.980 | 61.456 | -23.476 | 0.61800 | | KQo, two-tone | 58.892 | 61.456 | -2.564 | 0.95828 | | KQo, monotone | 58.638 | 61.456 | -2.818 | 0.95415 | | KQo, paired | 62.410 | 61.456 | +0.954 | 1.01552 | | 98s, all flops | 39.643 | 50.801 | -11.158 | 0.78036 | | 98s, rainbow, ten or higher | 32.219 | 50.801 | -18.582 | 0.63422 | | 98s, rainbow, nine or lower | 62.020 | 50.801 | +11.219 | 1.22084 | | 98s, two-tone | 41.108 | 50.801 | -9.693 | 0.80920 | | 98s, monotone | 41.362 | 50.801 | -9.439 | 0.81420 | | 98s, paired | 37.590 | 50.801 | -13.211 | 0.73995 | ## 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** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | KQo wins | Ties | 98s wins | KQo equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 24 | 50.00 | 60.705 | 0.699 | 38.596 | 61.054 | | No shared suit | 24 | 50.00 | 59.351 | 0.617 | 40.032 | 59.660 | ## 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. ## Keep exploring 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. - [Open KsQh against 9d8d in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=KsQh&p2=9d8d) - [KQo combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/kqo.md) - [98s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/98s.md) - [KQo vs 22](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqo-vs-22.md) - [KQo vs 97s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqo-vs-97s.md) - [A7s vs 98s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a7s-vs-98s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## 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. ## Related - [KQo vs 22: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqo-vs-22.md) - [KQo vs 97s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqo-vs-97s.md) - [A7s vs 98s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a7s-vs-98s.md)