--- title: "T9s vs 98s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/t9s-vs-98s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/t9s-vs-98s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "T9s is a big favorite over 98s before the flop: 69.32% to 30.68% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/t9s-vs-22.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/t9s-vs-97s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/33-vs-98s.md"] --- # T9s vs 98s: preflop equity T9s is a big favorite over 98s before the flop: 69.32% to 30.68% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Dealt all in against each other, T9s takes 69.32% of the pot on average and 98s takes the other 30.68%. ## T9s against 98s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for T9s against 98s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | T9s | 66.018 | 6.604 | 27.378 | 69.320 | | 98s | 27.378 | 6.604 | 66.018 | 30.680 | T9s meets 98s, and both are suited hands. Because the hands share one rank, the one with the higher kicker is ahead when that rank pairs and the other hand is mostly drawing. A lead of 38.64 points is large but not decisive: 98s still takes about 274 of every 1,000 deals. The tie share is 6.60%: on those boards the pot is chopped and neither hand wins outright. T9s ranks number 64 of 169 starting hands, and 98s ranks number 83, by equity against a random hand. **Boards behind the percentages: 20,547,648 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | T9s | 13,565,000 | 1,357,000 | 5,626,000 | | 98s | 5,626,000 | 1,357,000 | 13,565,000 | Exact total: 12 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. **T9s 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) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | T9s | 2.259 | 1.515 | 3.653 | 0.443 | | 98s | 0.443 | 3.653 | 1.515 | 2.259 | 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 The flop changes the picture. T9s does best on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better, at 73.46%, and worst on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower), at 61.10%. T9s stays ahead on all five textures. **T9s against 98s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | T9s wins | Ties | 98s wins | T9s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.254 | 70.351 | 6.220 | 23.429 | 73.461 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.654 | 59.578 | 3.047 | 37.375 | 61.101 | | Two-tone | 46.543 | 65.814 | 5.197 | 28.989 | 68.412 | | Monotone | 5.215 | 59.298 | 7.157 | 33.545 | 62.877 | | Paired | 17.334 | 64.377 | 11.934 | 23.689 | 70.344 | 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 T9s 54.03% and 98s 50.80%. Against each other the change is +15.29 points for T9s and -20.12 for 98s. **T9s 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | T9s, all flops | 69.320 | 54.028 | +15.292 | 1.28304 | | T9s, rainbow, ten or higher | 73.461 | 54.028 | +19.433 | 1.35968 | | T9s, rainbow, nine or lower | 61.101 | 54.028 | +7.073 | 1.13091 | | T9s, two-tone | 68.412 | 54.028 | +14.384 | 1.26623 | | T9s, monotone | 62.877 | 54.028 | +8.849 | 1.16379 | | T9s, paired | 70.344 | 54.028 | +16.316 | 1.30199 | | 98s, all flops | 30.680 | 50.801 | -20.121 | 0.60393 | | 98s, rainbow, ten or higher | 26.539 | 50.801 | -24.262 | 0.52241 | | 98s, rainbow, nine or lower | 38.899 | 50.801 | -11.902 | 0.76571 | | 98s, two-tone | 31.588 | 50.801 | -19.213 | 0.62180 | | 98s, monotone | 37.123 | 50.801 | -13.678 | 0.73075 | | 98s, paired | 29.656 | 50.801 | -21.145 | 0.58377 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Every legal deal of T9s against 98s leaves the hands with no suit in common, so the suit split does not apply here. **T9s against 98s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | T9s wins | Ties | 98s wins | T9s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 0 | 0.00 | not possible | not possible | not possible | not possible | | No shared suit | 12 | 100.00 | 66.018 | 6.604 | 27.378 | 69.320 | ## How often this matchup comes up T9s against 98s is made up of 12 specific-card matchups in one seat order, 0.0007% of the 1,624,350 ordered deals, and 24 counting both seat orders, 0.0015%. ## A worked example To see what the equity is worth, imagine $100 each in a $200 pot. T9s is worth $138.64 on average (+$38.64); 98s is worth $61.36 (-$38.64). Out of 1,000 deals you should see around 660 outright wins for T9s, 274 for 98s, and 66 split pots. ## The same matchup from the other side The mirror image, 98s against T9s, is 30.68% to 69.32%, and its address redirects to this page. ## Keep exploring Open the calculator with Ts9s against 9h8h 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 Ts9s against 9h8h in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=Ts9s&p2=9h8h) - [T9s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/t9s.md) - [98s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/98s.md) - [T9s vs 22](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/t9s-vs-22.md) - [T9s vs 97s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/t9s-vs-97s.md) - [33 vs 98s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/33-vs-98s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed Nothing here is simulated. The 12 deals of T9s 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 - [T9s vs 22: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/t9s-vs-22.md) - [T9s vs 97s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/t9s-vs-97s.md) - [33 vs 98s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/33-vs-98s.md)