--- title: "A5s vs 86s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a5s-vs-86s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a5s-vs-86s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "Who is ahead, A5s or 86s? A5s leads 56.69% to 43.31% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a5s-vs-76s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a5s-vs-75s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a6s-vs-86s.md"] --- # A5s vs 86s: preflop equity Who is ahead, A5s or 86s? A5s leads 56.69% to 43.31% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. In equity, A5s against 86s stands at 56.69% to 43.31%, a gap of 13.38 points. ## A5s against 86s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for A5s against 86s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A5s | 56.434 | 0.505 | 43.061 | 56.686 | | 86s | 43.061 | 0.505 | 56.434 | 43.314 | A5s meets 86s, and both are suited hands. The two hands share no rank, which makes this a pure matchup of card strength, straight chances and flush chances. That is a modest edge, the kind that shows up over many hands and is easy to miss in one. A split pot comes up on 0.51% of boards, so the wins and the equity differ by half of that. A5s ranks number 30 of 169 starting hands, and 86s ranks number 110, by equity against a random hand. **Boards behind the percentages: 27,396,864 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A5s | 15,461,000 | 138,000 | 11,797,000 | | 86s | 11,797,000 | 138,000 | 15,461,000 | 16 specific deals times 1,712,304 boards gives the exact total. The won, tied and lost counts are approximations from the five-decimal percentages, rounded to the nearest thousand. **A5s 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) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A5s | 1.309 | 1.772 | 2.322 | 0.764 | | 86s | 0.764 | 2.322 | 1.772 | 1.309 | 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 If you know the kind of flop that came, the numbers shift: A5s holds 62.34% on paired flops and 38.15% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower). On low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) the numbers flip and 86s is the one ahead. **A5s against 86s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | A5s wins | Ties | 86s wins | A5s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.220 | 59.760 | 0.209 | 40.031 | 59.865 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.689 | 37.837 | 0.627 | 61.536 | 38.150 | | Two-tone | 46.727 | 55.312 | 0.261 | 44.427 | 55.442 | | Monotone | 5.273 | 52.477 | 3.426 | 44.097 | 54.190 | | Paired | 17.091 | 62.002 | 0.669 | 37.329 | 62.337 | 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 How much does the opponent matter? Compared with its random-hand 59.92%, A5s changes by -3.23 points, and 86s, from 46.24%, by -2.93. **A5s 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A5s, all flops | 56.686 | 59.923 | -3.237 | 0.94598 | | A5s, rainbow, ten or higher | 59.865 | 59.923 | -0.058 | 0.99903 | | A5s, rainbow, nine or lower | 38.150 | 59.923 | -21.773 | 0.63665 | | A5s, two-tone | 55.442 | 59.923 | -4.481 | 0.92522 | | A5s, monotone | 54.190 | 59.923 | -5.733 | 0.90433 | | A5s, paired | 62.337 | 59.923 | +2.414 | 1.04029 | | 86s, all flops | 43.314 | 46.243 | -2.929 | 0.93666 | | 86s, rainbow, ten or higher | 40.135 | 46.243 | -6.108 | 0.86792 | | 86s, rainbow, nine or lower | 61.850 | 46.243 | +15.607 | 1.33750 | | 86s, two-tone | 44.558 | 46.243 | -1.685 | 0.96356 | | 86s, monotone | 45.810 | 46.243 | -0.433 | 0.99064 | | 86s, paired | 37.663 | 46.243 | -8.580 | 0.81446 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Looking only at deals where the hands share a suit, A5s has 58.54%; looking only at deals where they do not, 56.07%. A5s does better with a shared suit, by 2.47 points. **A5s against 86s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | A5s wins | Ties | 86s wins | A5s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 4 | 25.00 | 58.250 | 0.583 | 41.167 | 58.541 | | No shared suit | 12 | 75.00 | 55.828 | 0.479 | 43.693 | 56.068 | ## 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 Say each player puts $100 in before the flop, making a $200 pot. On average A5s takes back $113.38 of it, which is $13.38 more than it put in, and 86s takes back $86.62, $13.38 less than it put in. A thousand deals look like this: A5s takes 564, 86s takes 431, 5 are ties. ## The same matchup from the other side The reversed view, 86s against A5s, shows 43.31% for 86s and 56.69% for A5s. It is the same count, so it redirects here. ## Keep exploring As5s against 8h6h is a ready-made deal for the calculator, with no suit in common between the hands. The neighboring matchups below replace one hand with another of similar strength. - [Open As5s against 8h6h in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=As5s&p2=8h6h) - [A5s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a5s.md) - [86s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/86s.md) - [A5s vs 76s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a5s-vs-76s.md) - [A5s vs 75s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a5s-vs-75s.md) - [A6s vs 86s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a6s-vs-86s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed We counted every case. Each suit pattern of the 16 specific A5s against 86s deals meets all 1,712,304 boards, and the better five-card hand wins; a split pot is half a win each. The flop table reads each board under all ten of its three-card flops. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [A5s vs 76s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a5s-vs-76s.md) - [A5s vs 75s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a5s-vs-75s.md) - [A6s vs 86s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a6s-vs-86s.md)