--- title: "QJo vs 98s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjo-vs-98s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjo-vs-98s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "QJo is a big favorite over 98s before the flop: 61.01% to 38.99% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjo-vs-22.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjo-vs-97s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/k9o-vs-98s.md"] --- # QJo vs 98s: preflop equity QJo is a big favorite over 98s before the flop: 61.01% to 38.99% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Counting every board, the equity split is 61.01% for QJo and 38.99% for 98s, so QJo leads by 22.02 points. ## QJo against 98s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for QJo against 98s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | QJo | 60.564 | 0.888 | 38.548 | 61.008 | | 98s | 38.548 | 0.888 | 60.564 | 38.992 | One side is an offsuit hand, the other is a suited hand. Neither hand shares a rank with the other, so this is a contest of high cards, connection and suits. That is a modest edge, the kind that shows up over many hands and is easy to miss in one. Ties are 0.89% of the outcomes here; each tied board gives both hands half the pot. The hand ranking puts QJo at 39 and 98s at 83 out of 169 starting hands. **Boards behind the percentages: 82,190,592 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | QJo | 49,778,000 | 730,000 | 31,683,000 | | 98s | 31,683,000 | 730,000 | 49,778,000 | The board total is exact, 48 deals at 1,712,304 boards each. Won, tied and lost counts are rounded to the nearest thousand from the five-decimal percentages. **QJo 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) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | QJo | 1.565 | 1.651 | 2.594 | 0.639 | | 98s | 0.639 | 2.594 | 1.651 | 1.565 | The last column is the smallest pot odds, written as a pot-to-call ratio, at which a call breaks even with this equity. ## Who is ahead on which flops The flop changes the picture. QJo does best on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better, at 68.32%, and worst on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower), at 39.33%. The overall edge for QJo hides low rainbow flops (nine high or lower), where 98s comes out in front. **QJo against 98s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | QJo wins | Ties | 98s wins | QJo equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 24.717 | 68.093 | 0.449 | 31.458 | 68.317 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 6.313 | 39.002 | 0.665 | 60.333 | 39.334 | | Two-tone | 46.667 | 59.414 | 0.462 | 40.124 | 59.645 | | Monotone | 5.212 | 58.019 | 2.527 | 39.454 | 59.282 | | Paired | 17.091 | 61.558 | 2.266 | 36.176 | 62.691 | 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 Against one random hand instead, QJo holds 58.14% and 98s holds 50.80%. Facing each other changes that by +2.87 points for QJo and -11.81 points for 98s. **QJo 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | QJo, all flops | 61.008 | 58.135 | +2.873 | 1.04942 | | QJo, rainbow, ten or higher | 68.317 | 58.135 | +10.182 | 1.17514 | | QJo, rainbow, nine or lower | 39.334 | 58.135 | -18.801 | 0.67660 | | QJo, two-tone | 59.645 | 58.135 | +1.510 | 1.02597 | | QJo, monotone | 59.282 | 58.135 | +1.147 | 1.01973 | | QJo, paired | 62.691 | 58.135 | +4.556 | 1.07837 | | 98s, all flops | 38.992 | 50.801 | -11.809 | 0.76754 | | 98s, rainbow, ten or higher | 31.683 | 50.801 | -19.118 | 0.62367 | | 98s, rainbow, nine or lower | 60.666 | 50.801 | +9.865 | 1.19419 | | 98s, two-tone | 40.355 | 50.801 | -10.446 | 0.79437 | | 98s, monotone | 40.718 | 50.801 | -10.083 | 0.80152 | | 98s, paired | 37.309 | 50.801 | -13.492 | 0.73441 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Does suit overlap move the numbers? QJo has 61.69% when the hands share a suit and 60.33% when they do not. QJo does better with a shared suit, by 1.36 points. **QJo against 98s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | QJo wins | Ties | 98s wins | QJo equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 24 | 50.00 | 61.226 | 0.929 | 37.845 | 61.691 | | No shared suit | 24 | 50.00 | 59.902 | 0.846 | 39.252 | 60.325 | ## How often this matchup comes up This page stands for 48 specific-card matchups (0.0030% of 1,624,350 ordered deals), or 96 once you count the seats both ways (0.0059%). ## A worked example A $100 all-in from each player makes a $200 pot, and the exact equity says QJo gets $122.02 of it on average and 98s gets $77.98. A thousand deals look like this: QJo takes 606, 98s takes 385, 9 are ties. ## The same matchup from the other side If you came looking for 98s against QJo, the numbers are the same with the hands swapped: 38.99% and 61.01%. ## Keep exploring QsJh 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 QsJh against 9d8d in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=QsJh&p2=9d8d) - [QJo combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/qjo.md) - [98s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/98s.md) - [QJo vs 22](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjo-vs-22.md) - [QJo vs 97s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjo-vs-97s.md) - [K9o vs 98s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/k9o-vs-98s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed All 1,712,304 five-card boards are dealt for every suit pattern among the 48 specific deals of QJo against 98s, and both hands are scored on each. That is a full count, so the percentages are exact. Ties are half a win each, and each board appears once per flop it contains. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [QJo vs 22: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjo-vs-22.md) - [QJo vs 97s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjo-vs-97s.md) - [K9o vs 98s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/k9o-vs-98s.md)