QQ vs KQo

When QQ and KQo get all in before the flop, QQ wins 68.6% of the time and KQo takes 31.4%. Broken down, QQ wins outright 68.0%, chops 1.2% and loses 30.8% — a margin of 37.2 points. Pair against one overcard — roughly 70/30 in the pair's favour.

The same matchup shifts depending on how the suits overlap. With one shared suit the number is 68.5% (for example Qs Qh against Ks Qd); with no shared suit it is 68.7% (Qs Qh against Kd Qc). That is a spread of 0.11 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 QQ 55.1%, KQo 26.8%, random 18.1%. QQ gives up 13.5 points and KQo gives up 4.6, 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, QQ is worth 79.9% against a random hand (rank 3 of 169) and KQo is worth 61.5% (rank 23). The gap between them in the ranking is only 18.4 points, yet head to head the gap is 37.2 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, QQ scoops roughly 68 pots, splits about 1, and loses the remaining 31. Against eight random opponents rather than this one specific hand, QQ would be down to 24.5% 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, 31.4% is the break-even point for calling an all-in at 2.18:1 pot odds. Put another way, the call is profitable as long as the amount you have to put in is less than 31.4% of the pot you are playing for. QQ holds the other 68.6% 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, QQ's 68.6% moves. Use the individual pages for QQ and KQo to see how each of them fares against all 168 other holdings before treating this single pairing as the whole picture.

When the three flop cards are out, QQ is ahead 82.1% of the time and KQo 17.9%, and the two hands are never level on the flop. "Ahead" means the better best-five-card hand from the cards showing plus the two hole cards; draws are not counted.

When QQ leads on the flop, KQo comes back on the turn and river 17.7% of the time. When KQo leads on the flop, QQ turns it around 5.75% of the time. The hand in front holds on to win 83.2% of the time from the flop and 90.2% from the turn (level spots left out).

With the turn out, QQ leads 75.5% and KQo 24.3%. Counted exhaustively, QQ finishes with 68.54% equity (the 68.6% at the top of the page is a 200,000-hand simulation).