[rufus]

[ QUOTE ]
There are worse offsuit hands than 97o. I actually was convinced I had a bug in my evaluation program because it claimed certain hands were winning BBJs, for awhile.

[/ QUOTE ]

Party poker requires
1. Both cards in the holding to be used
2. The losing hand to be 4 8's and an ace or worse.

This gives us the following off suit possibilities:
A8o
Pocket pair (clearly stronger than A8o)
9x

Now, A8o is stronger than 9K-92o, so we can concentrate on the 9x case.

The board must have three 9's to make the hand. In order to have both cards in the holding used, the x must be at least as high as any of the non-nine cards on the board (or 'cards speak' will prevent the use of both hole cards).

Finally, to make a hand that beats four nines, the opponent must have a higher 4-of a kind (which means the board has to have cards higher than 9), or a straight flush (which means the board must have, at minimum, a 6 in addition to the nines). That means that 96o or 97o (depending on how the 6 is chosen if there is an option) is the minimum holding that can produce 4 9's and a bad beat.