QTs vs 98s: preflop equity

Over all 1,712,304 boards that can follow this deal, QTs finishes with 63.58% of the pot and 98s with 36.42%.

QTs

63.58%

Wins 63.12%, ties 0.91%

98s

36.42%

Wins 35.97%, ties 0.91%

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

QTs against 98s: the numbers

Exact preflop results for QTs against 98s, in percent
HandWinsTiesLosesEquity
QTs63.1230.90635.97163.576
98s35.9710.90663.12336.424

QTs meets 98s, and both are suited hands. The two hands share no rank, which makes this a pure matchup of card strength, straight chances and flush chances.

That is a modest edge, the kind that shows up over many hands and is easy to miss in one. Ties are 0.91% of the outcomes here; each tied board gives both hands half the pot.

In the ranking of all 169 starting hands, QTs is number 34 and 98s is number 83.

Boards behind the percentages: 27,396,864 counted in all
HandBoards won, aboutBoards tied, aboutBoards lost, about
QTs17,294,000248,0009,855,000
98s9,855,000248,00017,294,000

16 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.

QTs against 98s read as odds
HandEquity as odds (to 1)Wins one deal inLoses one deal inPot odds needed to call (to 1)
QTs1.7451.5842.7800.573
98s0.5732.7801.5841.745

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

Break the boards down by their first three cards and QTs is strongest on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better (69.69%) and weakest on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) (42.31%). 98s is ahead on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower), even though it trails QTs when every flop is counted.

QTs against 98s by flop texture, in percent
FlopShare of flopsQTs winsTies98s winsQTs equity
Rainbow, ten or higher24.59569.4620.45830.08069.691
Rainbow, nine or lower6.31442.0540.51257.43442.310
Two-tone46.72762.7830.42936.78862.997
Monotone5.27358.7733.52137.70660.534
Paired17.09164.0552.19233.75365.151

Flop types: rainbow means three different suits, two-tone means one suit twice, monotone means one suit three times, paired means a repeated rank.

Compared with a random hand

The table below sets each hand against its own random-hand baseline: a change of +4.11 points for QTs, from 59.47%, and -14.38 for 98s, from 50.80%.

QTs and 98s here compared with each against a random hand, in percent
CaseEquity hereAgainst a random handChange in pointsTimes the random-hand equity
QTs, all flops63.57659.468+4.1081.06908
QTs, rainbow, ten or higher69.69159.468+10.2231.17191
QTs, rainbow, nine or lower42.31059.468-17.1580.71148
QTs, two-tone62.99759.468+3.5291.05934
QTs, monotone60.53459.468+1.0661.01793
QTs, paired65.15159.468+5.6831.09556
98s, all flops36.42450.801-14.3770.71699
98s, rainbow, ten or higher30.30950.801-20.4920.59662
98s, rainbow, nine or lower57.69050.801+6.8891.13561
98s, two-tone37.00350.801-13.7980.72839
98s, monotone39.46650.801-11.3350.77687
98s, paired34.84950.801-15.9520.68599

Does a shared suit matter?

Two kinds of deal exist here. In 4 of them the hands share a suit and QTs holds 66.02%. In 12 they do not, and it holds 62.76%. QTs does better with a shared suit, by 3.26 points.

QTs against 98s by suit overlap, in percent
DealsSpecific dealsShare of dealsQTs winsTies98s winsQTs equity
Share a suit425.0065.5221.00133.47766.023
No shared suit1275.0062.3230.87436.80362.760

How often this matchup comes up

Counting specific cards, QTs against 98s appears in 16 of the 1,624,350 ordered heads-up deals (0.0010%), and in 32 when the seats are swapped too (0.0020%).

A worked example

Try it with money: two players each put in $100 and the whole board runs out every possible way. QTs averages $127.16 from the $200, up $27.16; 98s averages $72.84, down $27.16.

Over a long run, 1,000 deals split into about 631 for QTs, 360 for 98s and 9 tied.

The same matchup from the other side

The reversed view, 98s against QTs, shows 36.42% for 98s and 63.58% for QTs. It is the same count, so it redirects here.

The calculator link fills in QsTs against 9h8h, a deal where the two hands share no suit. Change any card to test your own hand. The neighboring matchups below swap one of the two hands for one of similar strength.

How this was computed

The page is built from a full enumeration: 1,712,304 boards, every suit pattern of the 16 specific deals, both seven-card hands evaluated. A tie is worth half a win to each hand, and a board is tallied under each of its ten possible flops for the texture rows.

Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used.

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