Q8s

Q8s (queen-eight suited) wins 56.0% of the time against a single random opponent, which places it 51th out of the 169 starting hands — the top 30.2% of the range. At a six-handed table (five opponents) its equity falls to 20.7% and its rank moves to 42; nine-handed (eight opponents) it holds 14.3% for rank 44. A suited hand — the flush adds a few points of raw equity.

Its suited/offsuit twin Q8o runs at 53.7% (rank 66), a gap of 2.3 points. Sharing a suit is worth exactly those 2.3 points here — nothing about the ranks changes. The hand directly above it in the ranking is A4o at 56.8%, and directly below is K8o at 56.0%, so three hands are packed into a band of 0.8 points.

Played heads-up against each of the other 168 hands, Q8s is a favourite against 105 of them and an underdog against 63. Its best matchup is 82o at 76.6% and its worst is QQ at 13.0% — a spread of 63.6 points, which is why calling Q8s simply "strong" or "weak" says very little. 3 opponents land inside one point of a coinflip, the closest being 33 at 50.3%.

Q8s dominates 8 hands that share one of its ranks, pushing hardest against 82o at 76.6%. It is dominated by 8 hands in return, the worst of them KQs, which leaves Q8s with only 27.6%. 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 24 of 78. The strongest hand in that group, AKs, is 11.2 points away, and the weakest, 32s, sits 20.1 points below. Measured against the average equity of all 169 hands, 51%, Q8s lands +5 points from the middle of the pack, and 50 hands in the full ranking are still ahead of it.

Adding players costs equity steadily: 56.0% against one opponent, 38.6% against two, 24.6% against four and 14.3% against eight. That last figure is 129% of an even nine-way share (11.1%). The Chen formula scores this hand at 5 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 Q8s reads as 56.0% 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.

Q8s 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. 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, Q8s flops a pair or better or a strong draw (a flush draw or an eight-out straight draw) 44.5% of the time — rank 38 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, Q8s goes from 56.0% before the flop up to 75.8% when either card pairs, and down to 46.5% 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 47.7%; missing with nothing above Q leaves 45.6%.

By board shape: rainbow 55.4%, two-tone 56.6%, monotone 54.4%. Two of your suit (a flush draw) gives 66.3% (10.9% of flops), and three of your suit (a made flush) 95.9% (0.842%). A paired board gives 55.9%, and a connected board (three ranks within five) 55.2%. The best row in the table is "Three of your suit (made flush)" at 95.9%, the worst "and nothing above Q" at 45.6%.

The 56.0% 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 56.02% (a gap of 0.02 points). Each equity is taken with the flop out and the turn and river still to come.