AKs vs KQo
Domination — a shared rank turns this into a kicker fight, and kicker fights are lopsided.
- AKs Win
- 75.2%
- Tie
- 1.2%
- AKs Lose
- 23.7%
- Card combinations
- 36
- AKs vs random
- 67.2% · #8
- KQo vs random
- 61.5% · #23
Win, tie and loss for AKs
When AKs and KQo get all in before the flop, AKs wins 75.7% of the time and KQo takes 24.3%. Broken down, AKs wins outright 75.2%, chops 1.2% and loses 23.7% — a margin of 51.5 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 one shared suit the number is 75.6% (for example As Ks against Kh Qs); with no shared suit it is 75.8% (As Ks against Kh Qd). That is a spread of 0.21 points across the 36 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 51.4%, KQo 21.4%, random 27.1%. AKs gives up 24.3 points and KQo gives up 2.8, 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 KQo is worth 61.5% (rank 23). The gap between them in the ranking is only 5.7 points, yet head to head the gap is 51.5 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 75 pots, splits about 1, and loses the remaining 24. Against eight random opponents rather than this one specific hand, AKs would be down to 22.4% and KQo to 16.7%, so the shape of this particular confrontation matters far more than either hand's standing in the overall ranking.
From KQo's side, 24.3% is the break-even point for calling an all-in at 3.12:1 pot odds. Put another way, the call is profitable as long as the amount you have to put in is less than 24.3% of the pot you are playing for. AKs holds the other 75.7% of that same pot.
Two caveats keep this figure honest. First, it is showdown equity across all 36 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 KQo really does hold exactly KQo; against the wider range a player would actually get all in with, AKs's 75.7% moves. Use the individual pages for AKs and KQo 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 Kh Qd | 24 | 75.8% | 75.2% | 1.1% | 23.6% |
| One shared suit | As Ks vs Kh Qs | 12 | 75.6% | 75.0% | 1.2% | 23.8% |
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 | KQo |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 67.2% | 61.5% |
| 2 | 50.3% | 44.4% |
| 4 | 35.4% | 29.2% |
| 8 | 22.4% | 16.7% |
Related
FAQ
AKs or KQo — which is ahead preflop?
AKs is the favourite. AKs takes 75.7% and KQo 24.3%, a margin of 51.5 points, with 1.2% of hands ending in a chop.
Do the suits change AKs vs KQo?
Yes. With one shared suit it is 75.6%, and with no shared suit it is 75.8% — a swing of up to 0.21 points.
What happens three-way?
With one extra random hand in the pot the split is AKs 51.4%, KQo 21.4%, random 27.1%. AKs drops 24.3 points compared with heads-up.
433 words / 27 distinct figures — Method