A8o

A8o (ace-eight offsuit) wins 59.9% of the time against a single random opponent, which places it 31th out of the 169 starting hands — the top 18.3% of the range. At a six-handed table (five opponents) its equity falls to 19.0% and its rank moves to 58; nine-handed (eight opponents) it holds 12.0% for rank 78. An ace-high hand — watch out for kicker trouble and domination.

Its suited/offsuit twin A8s runs at 61.9% (rank 21), a gap of 2 points. Losing the shared suit costs 2 points of raw equity. The hand directly above it in the ranking is K9s at 59.9%, and directly below is A5s at 59.8%, so three hands are packed into a band of 0.1 points.

Played heads-up against each of the other 168 hands, A8o is a favourite against 144 of them and an underdog against 24. Its best matchup is 82o at 76.8% and its worst is AA at 6.6% — a spread of 70.2 points, which is why calling A8o simply "strong" or "weak" says very little.

A8o dominates 8 hands that share one of its ranks, pushing hardest against 82o at 76.8%. It is dominated by 8 hands in return, the worst of them AKs, which leaves A8o with only 25.0%. A single kicker can move the number by tens of points, and the full table below lists every one of those opponents.

Within the 78 offsuit hands it comes 8 of 78. The strongest hand in that group, AKo, is 5.5 points away, and the weakest, 32o, sits 27.6 points below. Measured against the average equity of all 169 hands, 51%, A8o lands +8.9 points from the middle of the pack, and 30 hands in the full ranking are still ahead of it.

Adding players costs equity steadily: 59.9% against one opponent, 40.4% against two, 23.6% against four and 12.0% against eight. That last figure is 108% of an even nine-way share (11.1%). The Chen formula scores this hand at 5 points, and it arrives 0.9% of the time (12 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 A8o reads as 59.9% 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.

A8o pairs the board on the flop — at least one of its two ranks hits — 32.4% of the time, and flops top pair or better (the paired card is the highest on the board, or two pair and up) 22.2%. By the river it has made a pair or better 48.7% of the time.

For straights, the flop completes one 0.0000% of the time (zero flops — the two cards are too far apart), gives an eight-out draw 1.63% and a four-out gutshot 5.88%. By the river a straight using a hole card completes 2.89% of the time.

Put together, A8o flops a pair or better or a strong draw (an eight-out straight draw) 34.1% of the time — rank 129 of the 156 unpaired hands (tied with 13 others). The highest is JTs, T9s, 98s and 4 others at 50.6% and the lowest AKo, A2o at 32.8%.

Against one random hand, A8o goes from 59.9% before the flop up to 78.4% when either card pairs, and down to 51.0% when both miss. It connects 32.4% of the time (6,356 of 19,600 flops). Nothing ranks above A, so a miss never brings an overcard.

By board shape: rainbow 60.6%, two-tone 59.5%, monotone 58.2%. A monotone flop in one of your suits gives 67.8%. A paired board gives 62.8%, and a connected board (three ranks within five) 58.9%. The best row in the table is "Either card hits (a matching rank on the flop)" at 78.4%, the worst "Neither card hits" at 51.0%.

The 59.9% 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 59.87% (a gap of 0.03 points). Each equity is taken with the flop out and the turn and river still to come.