88

88 (pocket eights) wins 69.2% of the time against a single random opponent, which places it 7th out of the 169 starting hands — the top 4.1% of the range. At a six-handed table (five opponents) its equity falls to 24.1% and its rank moves to 22; nine-handed (eight opponents) it holds 15.9% for rank 25. A middle pair — frequently chased by two overcards.

As a pocket pair there is no suited twin; instead there are 6 combinations of it in the deck, so you are dealt it 0.45% of the time (6 of 1,326 two-card hands). The hand ranked one place above is 99 at 72.2% and one place below is AKs at 67.2%. Every pocket pair flops a set about 11.8% of the time, so the pecking order among pairs is decided almost entirely before the flop.

Played heads-up against each of the other 168 hands, 88 is a favourite against 162 of them and an underdog against 6. Its best matchup is 83o at 93.3% and its worst is 99 at 18.1% — a spread of 75.2 points, which is why calling 88 simply "strong" or "weak" says very little. 4 opponents land inside one point of a coinflip, the closest being JTs at 50.3%.

88 shares a rank with relatively few hands, so it is rarely on the wrong side of a kicker problem. What does hurt it is running into a higher pair, where the number bottoms out at 18.1%. The table further down lists all 168 opponents individually.

Within the 13 pocket pairs it comes 7 of 13. The strongest hand in that group, AA, is 16 points away, and the weakest, 22, sits 19 points below. Measured against the average equity of all 169 hands, 51%, 88 lands +18.2 points from the middle of the pack, and 6 hands in the full ranking are still ahead of it.

Adding players costs equity steadily: 69.2% against one opponent, 50.2% against two, 29.2% against four and 15.9% against eight. That last figure is 143% of an even nine-way share (11.1%). The Chen formula scores this hand at 8 points, and it arrives 0.45% of the time (6 of 1,326 combinations).

One caveat worth repeating: every number on this page assumes the opponent holds a completely random hand and that the pot goes to showdown. Real opponents hold ranges, and a range that has already put money in is stronger than random — which is exactly why 88 reads as 69.2% here but plays worse than that against a raise. Use the 168 rows in the table below to see which specific holdings are the problem, rather than treating the headline figure as a verdict on the hand.

88 flops a set or better (set, full house or quads) 11.8% of the time — 2,304 of 19,600 flops, or 1 in 8.5 — and exactly a set 10.8%. By the river that rises to 19.2%. Those figures are identical for every pocket pair; what differs from pair to pair is what the flop looks like when the set misses.

When the set misses, all three flop cards come in below 8 — leaving an overpair — 10.3% of the time, while at least one higher card lands 77.9% of the time (1 in 1.3). The chance of staying an overpair is 16.7% for 99 (one pair up), and 5.82% for 77 (one pair down).

Against one random hand, 88 goes from 69.2% before the flop to 92.0% when it flops a set or better (11.8% of flops). Without a set, it holds 71.3% when all three cards are below 8 (still an overpair) and drops to 65.4% when a card above 8 lands (77.9%, 15,272 of 19,600 flops).

By board shape: rainbow 70.1%, two-tone 68.8%, monotone 65.0%. A monotone flop in one of your suits gives 70.9%. A paired board gives 71.5%, and a connected board (three ranks within five) 67.5%. The best row in the table is "Set or better (at least one 8 on the flop)" at 92.0%, the worst "Monotone (all three one suit)" at 65.0%.

The 69.2% at the top of the page is a 400,000-hand simulation; this table counts every deal of the opponent's two cards and the five-card board (2,097,572,400 per starting hand), which puts the pre-flop figure at 69.16% (a gap of 0.04 points). Each equity is taken with the flop out and the turn and river still to come.