J8s

J8s (jack-eight suited) wins 54.0% of the time against a single random opponent, which places it 64th out of the 169 starting hands — the top 37.9% of the range. At a six-handed table (five opponents) its equity falls to 20.4% and its rank moves to 45; nine-handed (eight opponents) it holds 14.5% for rank 40. A suited hand — the flush adds a few points of raw equity.

Its suited/offsuit twin J8o runs at 51.6% (rank 78), a gap of 2.4 points. Sharing a suit is worth exactly those 2.4 points here — nothing about the ranks changes. The hand directly above it in the ranking is K3s at 54.0%, and directly below is T9s at 54.0%, so three hands are packed into a band of 0 points.

Played heads-up against each of the other 168 hands, J8s is a favourite against 88 of them and an underdog against 80. Its best matchup is 83o at 76.2% and its worst is JJ at 14.6% — a spread of 61.6 points, which is why calling J8s simply "strong" or "weak" says very little. 3 opponents land inside one point of a coinflip, the closest being 44 at 50.4%.

J8s dominates 8 hands that share one of its ranks, pushing hardest against 83o at 76.2%. It is dominated by 8 hands in return, the worst of them KJs, which leaves J8s with only 28.7%. 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 30 of 78. The strongest hand in that group, AKs, is 13.2 points away, and the weakest, 32s, sits 18.1 points below. Measured against the average equity of all 169 hands, 51%, J8s lands +3 points from the middle of the pack, and 63 hands in the full ranking are still ahead of it.

Adding players costs equity steadily: 54.0% against one opponent, 37.4% against two, 24.0% against four and 14.5% against eight. That last figure is 131% of an even nine-way share (11.1%). The Chen formula scores this hand at 6 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 J8s reads as 54.0% 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.

J8s 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) 15.3%. By the river it has made a pair or better 48.7% of the time.

For straights, the flop completes one 0.653% of the time (128 flops), gives an eight-out draw 4.65% and a four-out gutshot 13.4%. By the river a straight using a hole card completes 6.00% 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, J8s flops a pair or better or a strong draw (a flush draw or an eight-out straight draw) 46.6% of the time — rank 21 of the 156 unpaired hands (tied with 1 other). The highest is JTs, T9s, 98s and 4 others at 50.6% and the lowest AKo, A2o at 32.8%.

Against one random hand, J8s goes from 54.0% before the flop up to 74.6% when either card pairs, and down to 44.1% when both miss. It connects 32.4% of the time (6,356 of 19,600 flops). Missing with a card above J on board leaves 44.9%; missing with nothing above J leaves 42.9%.

By board shape: rainbow 53.2%, two-tone 54.7%, monotone 53.1%. Two of your suit (a flush draw) gives 64.6% (10.9% of flops), and three of your suit (a made flush) 94.8% (0.842%). A paired board gives 52.5%, and a connected board (three ranks within five) 54.9%. The best row in the table is "Three of your suit (made flush)" at 94.8%, the worst "and nothing above J" at 42.9%.

The 54.0% 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 54.02% (a gap of 0.02 points). Each equity is taken with the flop out and the turn and river still to come.