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KK vs KQs

KK
VS
KQs
86.2%
equity for KK — KQs takes 13.8%

Pair against one overcard — roughly 70/30 in the pair's favour.

KK Win
85.6%
Tie
1.1%
KK Lose
13.3%
Card combinations
12
KK vs random
82.5% · #2
KQs vs random
63.4% · #16
Breakdown

Win, tie and loss for KK

Win 85.6%Lose 13.3%

When KK and KQs get all in before the flop, KK wins 86.2% of the time and KQs takes 13.8%. Broken down, KK wins outright 85.6%, chops 1.1% and loses 13.3% — a margin of 72.3 points. Pair against one overcard — roughly 70/30 in the pair's favour.

The same matchup shifts depending on how the suits overlap. With no shared suit the number is 86.2% (for example Ks Kh against Kd Qd); with no shared suit it is 86.2% (Ks Kh against Kd Qd). 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 KK 69.8%, KQs 13.4%, random 16.9%. KK gives up 16.4 points and KQs gives up 0.5, 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, KK is worth 82.5% against a random hand (rank 2 of 169) and KQs is worth 63.4% (rank 16). The gap between them in the ranking is only 19.1 points, yet head to head the gap is 72.3 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, KK scoops roughly 86 pots, splits about 1, and loses the remaining 13. Against eight random opponents rather than this one specific hand, KK would be down to 29.6% and KQs to 20.4%, so the shape of this particular confrontation matters far more than either hand's standing in the overall ranking.

From KQs's side, 13.8% is the break-even point for calling an all-in at 6.25:1 pot odds. Put another way, the call is profitable as long as the amount you have to put in is less than 13.8% of the pot you are playing for. KK holds the other 86.2% 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 KQs really does hold exactly KQs; against the wider range a player would actually get all in with, KK's 86.2% moves. Use the individual pages for KK and KQs to see how each of them fares against all 168 other holdings before treating this single pairing as the whole picture.

By shared suits

Overlapping suits move the number

200,000 simulated showdowns per condition. The example column shows one concrete four-card layout.

ConditionExampleCombosKK EquityWinTieLose
No shared suitKs Kh vs Kd Qd1286.2%85.6%1.1%13.3%
Three-way

Adding a random third hand

200,000 simulated showdowns, with the third hand dealt at random each time.

KK
69.8%
vs heads-up -16.4pt
KQs
13.4%
vs heads-up -0.5pt
Random third hand
16.9%
Player count

At a bigger table

Random opponentsKKKQs
182.5%63.4%
268.9%47.2%
449.3%32.3%
829.6%20.4%

Related

FAQ

KK or KQs — which is ahead preflop?

KK is the favourite. KK takes 86.2% and KQs 13.8%, a margin of 72.3 points, with 1.1% of hands ending in a chop.

Do the suits change KK vs KQs?

Yes. With no shared suit it is 86.2%, and with no shared suit it is 86.2% — a swing of up to 0 points.

What happens three-way?

With one extra random hand in the pot the split is KK 69.8%, KQs 13.4%, random 16.9%. KK drops 16.4 points compared with heads-up.

428 words / 28 distinct figures — Method