Q8o

Q8o (queen-eight offsuit) wins 53.7% of the time against a single random opponent, which places it 66th out of the 169 starting hands — the top 39.1% of the range. At a six-handed table (five opponents) its equity falls to 17.0% and its rank moves to 81; nine-handed (eight opponents) it holds 10.5% for rank 107. Two unconnected offsuit cards — the class of hand most often overvalued.

Its suited/offsuit twin Q8s runs at 56.0% (rank 51), a gap of 2.3 points. Losing the shared suit costs 2.3 points of raw equity. The hand directly above it in the ranking is T9s at 54.0%, and directly below is 33 at 53.7%, so three hands are packed into a band of 0.3 points.

Played heads-up against each of the other 168 hands, Q8o is a favourite against 102 of them and an underdog against 66. Its best matchup is 82o at 75.8% and its worst is QQ at 7.8% — a spread of 68 points, which is why calling Q8o simply "strong" or "weak" says very little.

Q8o dominates 8 hands that share one of its ranks, pushing hardest against 82o at 75.8%. It is dominated by 8 hands in return, the worst of them KQs, which leaves Q8o with only 23.1%. 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 offsuit hands it comes 24 of 78. The strongest hand in that group, AKo, is 11.7 points away, and the weakest, 32o, sits 21.4 points below. Measured against the average equity of all 169 hands, 51%, Q8o lands +2.7 points from the middle of the pack, and 65 hands in the full ranking are still ahead of it.

Adding players costs equity steadily: 53.7% against one opponent, 35.0% against two, 20.3% against four and 10.5% against eight. That last figure is 95% of an even nine-way share (11.1%). The Chen formula scores this hand at 3 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 Q8o reads as 53.7% 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.

Q8o 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) 17.3%. By the river it has made a pair or better 48.7% of the time.

For straights, the flop completes one 0.327% of the time (64 flops), gives an eight-out draw 1.96% and a four-out gutshot 11.3%. By the river a straight using a hole card completes 4.24% of the time.

Put together, Q8o flops a pair or better or a strong draw (an eight-out straight draw) 34.7% of the time — rank 116 of the 156 unpaired hands (tied with 5 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, Q8o goes from 53.6% before the flop up to 75.6% when either card pairs, and down to 43.0% when both miss. It connects 32.4% of the time (6,356 of 19,600 flops). Missing with a card above Q on board leaves 44.3%; missing with nothing above Q leaves 42.0%.

By board shape: rainbow 53.9%, two-tone 53.4%, monotone 53.5%. A monotone flop in one of your suits gives 62.7%. A paired board gives 53.6%, and a connected board (three ranks within five) 52.7%. The best row in the table is "Either card hits (a matching rank on the flop)" at 75.6%, the worst "and nothing above Q" at 42.0%.

The 53.7% 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 53.60% (a gap of 0.10 points). Each equity is taken with the flop out and the turn and river still to come.