--- title: "KTo vs 98s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kto-vs-98s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kto-vs-98s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "KTo is a big favorite over 98s before the flop: 60.42% to 39.58% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kto-vs-22.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kto-vs-97s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qts-vs-98s.md"] --- # KTo vs 98s: preflop equity KTo is a big favorite over 98s before the flop: 60.42% to 39.58% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Dealt all in against each other, KTo takes 60.42% of the pot on average and 98s takes the other 39.58%. ## KTo against 98s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for KTo against 98s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | KTo | 60.101 | 0.644 | 39.255 | 60.423 | | 98s | 39.255 | 0.644 | 60.101 | 39.577 | The matchup pits an offsuit hand against a suited hand. The two hands share no rank, which makes this a pure matchup of card strength, straight chances and flush chances. KTo is ahead, but 98s is far from dead: it takes 393 of every 1,000 deals outright. A split pot comes up on 0.64% of boards, so the wins and the equity differ by half of that. By strength against a random hand, KTo holds place 33 of 169 and 98s holds place 83. **Boards behind the percentages: 82,190,592 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | KTo | 49,397,000 | 529,000 | 32,264,000 | | 98s | 32,264,000 | 529,000 | 49,397,000 | 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. **KTo 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) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | KTo | 1.527 | 1.664 | 2.547 | 0.655 | | 98s | 0.655 | 2.547 | 1.664 | 1.527 | The last column is the break-even price: the pot odds a call needs to offer, as a ratio of pot to call. ## Who is ahead on which flops If you know the kind of flop that came, the numbers shift: KTo holds 67.50% on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better and 38.92% 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. **KTo against 98s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | KTo wins | Ties | 98s wins | KTo equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 24.717 | 67.330 | 0.329 | 32.341 | 67.495 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 6.313 | 38.649 | 0.543 | 60.808 | 38.920 | | Two-tone | 46.667 | 58.710 | 0.347 | 40.943 | 58.884 | | Monotone | 5.212 | 57.408 | 2.436 | 40.156 | 58.626 | | Paired | 17.091 | 62.189 | 1.399 | 36.412 | 62.888 | 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 A random hand would give KTo 59.74% and 98s 50.80%. Against each other the change is +0.68 points for KTo and -11.22 for 98s. **KTo 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | KTo, all flops | 60.423 | 59.739 | +0.684 | 1.01145 | | KTo, rainbow, ten or higher | 67.495 | 59.739 | +7.756 | 1.12983 | | KTo, rainbow, nine or lower | 38.920 | 59.739 | -20.819 | 0.65150 | | KTo, two-tone | 58.884 | 59.739 | -0.855 | 0.98569 | | KTo, monotone | 58.626 | 59.739 | -1.113 | 0.98137 | | KTo, paired | 62.888 | 59.739 | +3.149 | 1.05271 | | 98s, all flops | 39.577 | 50.801 | -11.224 | 0.77906 | | 98s, rainbow, ten or higher | 32.505 | 50.801 | -18.296 | 0.63985 | | 98s, rainbow, nine or lower | 61.080 | 50.801 | +10.279 | 1.20234 | | 98s, two-tone | 41.116 | 50.801 | -9.685 | 0.80935 | | 98s, monotone | 41.374 | 50.801 | -9.427 | 0.81443 | | 98s, paired | 37.112 | 50.801 | -13.689 | 0.73054 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Suit overlap shows up in the numbers. With a suit in common KTo has 61.09% equity, and with none in common it has 59.76%. KTo does better with a shared suit, by 1.33 points. **KTo against 98s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | KTo wins | Ties | 98s wins | KTo equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 24 | 50.00 | 60.747 | 0.685 | 38.568 | 61.090 | | No shared suit | 24 | 50.00 | 59.455 | 0.602 | 39.943 | 59.756 | ## How often this matchup comes up Exactly 48 specific deals fit this matchup in one seat order, which is 0.0030% of 1,624,350; both orders together give 96, or 0.0059%. ## A worked example Put $100 each into a $200 pot and deal every board once: KTo averages $120.84 back, ahead of its $100 by $20.84, while 98s averages $79.16, short of its $100 by $20.84. Run 1,000 deals and the tally comes out near 601 for KTo, 393 for 98s and 6 ties. ## The same matchup from the other side The mirror image, 98s against KTo, is 39.58% to 60.42%, and its address redirects to this page. ## Keep exploring KsTh against 9d8d 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 KsTh against 9d8d in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=KsTh&p2=9d8d) - [KTo combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/kto.md) - [98s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/98s.md) - [KTo vs 22](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kto-vs-22.md) - [KTo vs 97s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kto-vs-97s.md) - [QTs vs 98s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qts-vs-98s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed Nothing here is simulated. The 48 deals of KTo against 98s 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 - [KTo vs 22: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kto-vs-22.md) - [KTo vs 97s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kto-vs-97s.md) - [QTs vs 98s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qts-vs-98s.md)