KQs

KQs (king-queen suited) wins 63.4% of the time against a single random opponent, which places it 16th out of the 169 starting hands — the top 9.5% of the range. At a six-handed table (five opponents) its equity falls to 28.4% and its rank moves to 8; nine-handed (eight opponents) it holds 20.4% for rank 7. A suited connector — straight and flush draws in the same holding.

Its suited/offsuit twin KQo runs at 61.5% (rank 23), a gap of 1.9 points. Sharing a suit is worth exactly those 1.9 points here — nothing about the ranks changes. The hand directly above it in the ranking is AJo at 63.6%, and directly below is 66 at 63.3%, so three hands are packed into a band of 0.3 points.

Played heads-up against each of the other 168 hands, KQs is a favourite against 133 of them and an underdog against 35. Its best matchup is Q2o at 77.8% and its worst is KK at 13.9% — a spread of 63.9 points, which is why calling KQs simply "strong" or "weak" says very little. 4 opponents land inside one point of a coinflip, the closest being 44 at 49.9%.

KQs dominates 8 hands that share one of its ranks, pushing hardest against Q2o at 77.8%. It is dominated by 4 hands in return, the worst of them AKs, which leaves KQs with only 28.6%. 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 5 of 78. The strongest hand in that group, AKs, is 3.8 points away, and the weakest, 32s, sits 27.5 points below. Measured against the average equity of all 169 hands, 51%, KQs lands +12.4 points from the middle of the pack, and 15 hands in the full ranking are still ahead of it.

Adding players costs equity steadily: 63.4% against one opponent, 47.2% against two, 32.3% against four and 20.4% against eight. That last figure is 184% of an even nine-way share (11.1%). The Chen formula scores this hand at 10 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 KQs reads as 63.4% 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.

KQs 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) 27.3%. 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 3.02% and a four-out gutshot 12.7%. By the river a straight using a hole card completes 4.80% 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, KQs flops a pair or better or a strong draw (a flush draw or an eight-out straight draw) 45.2% of the time — rank 29 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, KQs goes from 63.4% before the flop up to 83.7% when either card pairs, and down to 53.7% when both miss. It connects 32.4% of the time (6,356 of 19,600 flops). Missing with a card above K on board leaves 58.3%; missing with nothing above K leaves 52.1%.

By board shape: rainbow 63.2%, two-tone 63.8%, monotone 60.0%. Two of your suit (a flush draw) gives 71.8% (10.9% of flops), and three of your suit (a made flush) 96.9% (0.842%). A paired board gives 63.6%, and a connected board (three ranks within five) 56.7%. The best row in the table is "Three of your suit (made flush)" at 96.9%, the worst "and nothing above K" at 52.1%.

The 63.4% 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 63.40% (a gap of 0.00 points). Each equity is taken with the flop out and the turn and river still to come.