A8s

A8s (ace-eight suited) wins 61.9% of the time against a single random opponent, which places it 21th out of the 169 starting hands — the top 12.4% of the range. At a six-handed table (five opponents) its equity falls to 23.2% and its rank moves to 25; nine-handed (eight opponents) it holds 16.1% for rank 23. A suited ace — nut-flush potential on top of top-pair equity.

Its suited/offsuit twin A8o runs at 59.9% (rank 31), a gap of 2 points. Sharing a suit is worth exactly those 2 points here — nothing about the ranks changes. The hand directly above it in the ranking is KJs at 62.5%, and directly below is KTs at 61.8%, so three hands are packed into a band of 0.7 points.

Played heads-up against each of the other 168 hands, A8s is a favourite against 145 of them and an underdog against 23. Its best matchup is 82o at 77.5% and its worst is AA at 12.0% — a spread of 65.5 points, which is why calling A8s simply "strong" or "weak" says very little. 2 opponents land inside one point of a coinflip, the closest being 22 at 50.0%.

A8s dominates 8 hands that share one of its ranks, pushing hardest against 82o at 77.5%. It is dominated by 8 hands in return, the worst of them AKs, which leaves A8s with only 29.1%. 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 suited hands it comes 8 of 78. The strongest hand in that group, AKs, is 5.3 points away, and the weakest, 32s, sits 26 points below. Measured against the average equity of all 169 hands, 51%, A8s lands +10.9 points from the middle of the pack, and 20 hands in the full ranking are still ahead of it.

Adding players costs equity steadily: 61.9% against one opponent, 43.5% against two, 27.5% against four and 16.1% against eight. That last figure is 145% of an even nine-way share (11.1%). The Chen formula scores this hand at 7 points, and it arrives 0.3% of the time (4 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 A8s reads as 61.9% 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.

A8s 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. For flushes, two or more of its suit land on the flop 11.8% of the time (a made flush 0.842%), and a flush is complete by the river 6.40%.

Put together, A8s flops a pair or better or a strong draw (a flush draw or an eight-out straight draw) 43.9% of the time — rank 51 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, A8s goes from 61.9% before the flop up to 78.5% when either card pairs, and down to 54.0% 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 61.8%, two-tone 62.3%, monotone 58.5%. Two of your suit (a flush draw) gives 71.5% (10.9% of flops), and three of your suit (a made flush) 98.2% (0.842%). A paired board gives 64.6%, and a connected board (three ranks within five) 60.9%. The best row in the table is "Three of your suit (made flush)" at 98.2%, the worst "Neither card hits" at 54.0%.

The 61.9% 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 61.94% (a gap of 0.04 points). Each equity is taken with the flop out and the turn and river still to come.