An MD88 flight crew rejected their takeoff at around 80 KIAS when the left engine failed to advance to takeoff thrust.

Narrative

I was making the assumed temperature takeoff and advanced the throttles to approximately 1.3-1.4 EPR and called for autothrottles ON. The throttles advanced. The First Officer shortly thereafter called out that the left engine was not developing takeoff thrust prior to calling the '80 KTS; Thrust Normal' callout. I looked at the engine instruments and the left engine appeared to be about 1.36 EPR and the right engine appeared to be about 1.88 EPR. Just as I was shifting my gaze to the N1 indicators the First Officer called out abort. I made the decision to do so based on the First Officer's sound input during the time we had flown together; our relatively slow airspeed; and that the engine was not reaching takeoff thrust. I estimate our airspeed to be about 88 KTS by the time the procedure was completed (No 80 KTS call was made as our attention was diverted to the engine instruments and this is an estimate).The rejected takeoff was unremarkable. We actually had to add power to reach the first open exit. The First Officer called the Tower and told them we were aborting the takeoff and no assistance was required. The brake temp never exceeded 150 degrees and I don't believe it ever exceeded 125 degrees based on my checking the temperature 10-20 minutes after the low speed abort. We cleared the runway; made a PA; ran checklists; and waited for a gate. I strove to keep the Flight Attendants and passengers informed.