--- title: "A3s vs 86s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a3s-vs-86s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a3s-vs-86s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "Who is ahead, A3s or 86s? A3s leads 55.27% to 44.73% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a3s-vs-76s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a3s-vs-75s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjo-vs-86s.md"] --- # A3s vs 86s: preflop equity Who is ahead, A3s or 86s? A3s leads 55.27% to 44.73% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Dealt all in against each other, A3s takes 55.27% of the pot on average and 86s takes the other 44.73%. ## A3s against 86s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for A3s against 86s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A3s | 55.013 | 0.519 | 44.468 | 55.273 | | 86s | 44.468 | 0.519 | 55.013 | 44.727 | Each side holds one of the suited hands: A3s and 86s. With no overlap in ranks, every card that pairs one hand is a card that does not pair the other. A3s is ahead, but 86s is far from dead: it takes 445 of every 1,000 deals outright. The tie share is 0.52%: on those boards the pot is chopped and neither hand wins outright. Among the 169 starting hands, A3s is number 38 and 86s is number 110 by strength against a random hand. **Boards behind the percentages: 27,396,864 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A3s | 15,072,000 | 142,000 | 12,183,000 | | 86s | 12,183,000 | 142,000 | 15,072,000 | The total is exact: 16 specific deals times 1,712,304 boards. The three counts are approximate, worked out from the percentages to five decimals and rounded to the nearest thousand. **A3s against 86s read as odds** | Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A3s | 1.236 | 1.818 | 2.249 | 0.809 | | 86s | 0.809 | 2.249 | 1.818 | 1.236 | The final column gives the least the pot must offer for each unit called for a call to break even at this equity. ## Who is ahead on which flops Break the boards down by their first three cards and A3s is strongest on paired flops (61.51%) and weakest on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) (33.38%). The overall edge for A3s hides low rainbow flops (nine high or lower), where 86s comes out in front. **A3s against 86s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | A3s wins | Ties | 86s wins | A3s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.220 | 58.734 | 0.209 | 41.057 | 58.838 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.689 | 33.016 | 0.722 | 66.262 | 33.377 | | Two-tone | 46.727 | 53.831 | 0.275 | 45.894 | 53.969 | | Monotone | 5.273 | 51.460 | 3.434 | 45.106 | 53.177 | | Paired | 17.091 | 61.173 | 0.678 | 38.149 | 61.512 | A rainbow flop shows three suits, a two-tone flop repeats one suit, a monotone flop is a single suit, and a paired flop repeats a rank. ## Compared with a random hand Relative to a random opponent, A3s changes by -2.95 points (baseline 58.22%) and 86s by -1.51 points (baseline 46.24%). **A3s and 86s here compared with each against a random hand, in percent** | Case | Equity here | Against a random hand | Change in points | Times the random-hand equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A3s, all flops | 55.273 | 58.220 | -2.947 | 0.94938 | | A3s, rainbow, ten or higher | 58.838 | 58.220 | +0.618 | 1.01061 | | A3s, rainbow, nine or lower | 33.377 | 58.220 | -24.843 | 0.57329 | | A3s, two-tone | 53.969 | 58.220 | -4.251 | 0.92698 | | A3s, monotone | 53.177 | 58.220 | -5.043 | 0.91338 | | A3s, paired | 61.512 | 58.220 | +3.292 | 1.05654 | | 86s, all flops | 44.727 | 46.243 | -1.516 | 0.96722 | | 86s, rainbow, ten or higher | 41.162 | 46.243 | -5.081 | 0.89012 | | 86s, rainbow, nine or lower | 66.623 | 46.243 | +20.380 | 1.44072 | | 86s, two-tone | 46.031 | 46.243 | -0.212 | 0.99542 | | 86s, monotone | 46.823 | 46.243 | +0.580 | 1.01254 | | 86s, paired | 38.488 | 46.243 | -7.755 | 0.83230 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Looking only at deals where the hands share a suit, A3s has 56.93%; looking only at deals where they do not, 54.72%. A3s does better with a shared suit, by 2.21 points. **A3s against 86s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | A3s wins | Ties | 86s wins | A3s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 4 | 25.00 | 56.626 | 0.600 | 42.774 | 56.926 | | No shared suit | 12 | 75.00 | 54.476 | 0.492 | 45.032 | 54.722 | ## How often this matchup comes up The class pair covers 16 combinations of specific cards in a fixed seat order, 0.0010% of 1,624,350, and 32 (0.0020%) in either order. ## A worked example To see what the equity is worth, imagine $100 each in a $200 pot. A3s is worth $110.54 on average (+$10.54); 86s is worth $89.46 (-$10.54). Over a long run, 1,000 deals split into about 550 for A3s, 445 for 86s and 5 tied. ## The same matchup from the other side 86s against A3s adds nothing new: it is 44.73% for 86s and 55.27% for A3s, the same figures reversed. ## Keep exploring Try As3s against 8h6h in the calculator: the hands share no suit, and every card can be changed. The links after it are the closest matchups in the ranking. - [Open As3s against 8h6h in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=As3s&p2=8h6h) - [A3s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a3s.md) - [86s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/86s.md) - [A3s vs 76s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a3s-vs-76s.md) - [A3s vs 75s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a3s-vs-75s.md) - [QJo vs 86s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjo-vs-86s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed Method: exact enumeration. The 16 specific deals are grouped by suit pattern, each is run against all 1,712,304 boards, and both seven-card hands are scored. Equity adds half of every tie, and flop textures are tallied over the ten flops inside each board. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [A3s vs 76s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a3s-vs-76s.md) - [A3s vs 75s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a3s-vs-75s.md) - [QJo vs 86s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjo-vs-86s.md)