AKs vs A5s
Domination — a shared rank turns this into a kicker fight, and kicker fights are lopsided.
- AKs Win
- 67.8%
- Tie
- 4.3%
- AKs Lose
- 28.0%
- Card combinations
- 12
- AKs vs random
- 67.2% · #8
- A5s vs random
- 59.8% · #32
Win, tie and loss for AKs
When AKs and A5s get all in before the flop, AKs wins 69.9% of the time and A5s takes 30.1%. Broken down, AKs wins outright 67.8%, chops 4.3% and loses 28.0% — a margin of 39.8 points. Domination — a shared rank turns this into a kicker fight, and kicker fights are lopsided.
The same matchup shifts depending on how the suits overlap. With no shared suit the number is 69.9% (for example As Ks against Ah 5h); with no shared suit it is 69.9% (As Ks against Ah 5h). That is a spread of 0 points across the 12 distinct card combinations, and it comes almost entirely from whether the two hands are fighting over the same flush.
Add a third player holding a random hand and the split becomes AKs 49.6%, A5s 22.9%, random 27.5%. AKs gives up 20.3 points and A5s gives up 7.2, so the favourite loses more than the underdog does. Extra players always eat into the leader's share faster than into anyone else's.
Taken on their own, AKs is worth 67.2% against a random hand (rank 8 of 169) and A5s is worth 59.8% (rank 32). The gap between them in the ranking is only 7.4 points, yet head to head the gap is 39.8 points — a reminder that a ranking table and a direct matchup are two different questions.
Framed as a run of one hundred identical all-ins, AKs scoops roughly 68 pots, splits about 4, and loses the remaining 28. Against eight random opponents rather than this one specific hand, AKs would be down to 22.4% and A5s to 15.6%, so the shape of this particular confrontation matters far more than either hand's standing in the overall ranking.
From A5s's side, 30.1% is the break-even point for calling an all-in at 2.32:1 pot odds. Put another way, the call is profitable as long as the amount you have to put in is less than 30.1% of the pot you are playing for. AKs holds the other 69.9% of that same pot.
Two caveats keep this figure honest. First, it is showdown equity across all 12 card combinations with five board cards still to come — there is no fold equity in it, so the value of shoving in practice is usually higher than the raw percentage suggests. Second, it assumes A5s really does hold exactly A5s; against the wider range a player would actually get all in with, AKs's 69.9% moves. Use the individual pages for AKs and A5s to see how each of them fares against all 168 other holdings before treating this single pairing as the whole picture.
Overlapping suits move the number
200,000 simulated showdowns per condition. The example column shows one concrete four-card layout.
| Condition | Example | Combos | AKs Equity | Win | Tie | Lose |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No shared suit | As Ks vs Ah 5h | 12 | 69.9% | 67.8% | 4.3% | 28.0% |
Adding a random third hand
200,000 simulated showdowns, with the third hand dealt at random each time.
At a bigger table
| Random opponents | AKs | A5s |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 67.2% | 59.8% |
| 2 | 50.3% | 41.3% |
| 4 | 35.4% | 25.7% |
| 8 | 22.4% | 15.6% |
Related
FAQ
AKs or A5s — which is ahead preflop?
AKs is the favourite. AKs takes 69.9% and A5s 30.1%, a margin of 39.8 points, with 4.3% of hands ending in a chop.
Do the suits change AKs vs A5s?
Yes. With no shared suit it is 69.9%, and with no shared suit it is 69.9% — a swing of up to 0 points.
What happens three-way?
With one extra random hand in the pot the split is AKs 49.6%, A5s 22.9%, random 27.5%. AKs drops 20.3 points compared with heads-up.
433 words / 28 distinct figures — Method