--- title: "A8s vs A6s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-a6s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-a6s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "A8s is a big favorite over A6s before the flop: 64.41% to 35.59% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-kto.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-qts.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kts-vs-a6s.md"] --- # A8s vs A6s: preflop equity A8s is a big favorite over A6s before the flop: 64.41% to 35.59% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Dealt all in against each other, A8s takes 64.41% of the pot on average and A6s takes the other 35.59%. ## A8s against A6s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for A8s against A6s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A8s | 55.163 | 18.489 | 26.348 | 64.408 | | A6s | 26.348 | 18.489 | 55.163 | 35.592 | Each side holds one of the suited hands: A8s and A6s. Because the hands share one rank, the one with the higher kicker is ahead when that rank pairs and the other hand is mostly drawing. A 28.82 point lead is real, and A6s still takes about 263 of every 1,000 deals outright. The tie share is 18.49%: on those boards the pot is chopped and neither hand wins outright. Among the 169 starting hands, A8s is number 21 and A6s is number 31 by strength against a random hand. **Boards behind the percentages: 20,547,648 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A8s | 11,335,000 | 3,799,000 | 5,414,000 | | A6s | 5,414,000 | 3,799,000 | 11,335,000 | The board total is exact, 12 deals at 1,712,304 boards each. Won, tied and lost counts are rounded to the nearest thousand from the five-decimal percentages. **A8s against A6s read as odds** | Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A8s | 1.810 | 1.813 | 3.795 | 0.553 | | A6s | 0.553 | 3.795 | 1.813 | 1.810 | 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 Across the five flop textures A8s' equity moves by 7.62 points, from 59.69% on paired flops to 67.31% on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better. A8s stays ahead on all five textures. **A8s against A6s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | A8s wins | Ties | A6s wins | A8s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 24.526 | 57.740 | 19.139 | 23.121 | 67.310 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 6.383 | 64.130 | 4.246 | 31.624 | 66.253 | | Two-tone | 46.543 | 57.664 | 14.307 | 28.029 | 64.817 | | Monotone | 5.215 | 53.947 | 13.183 | 32.870 | 60.539 | | Paired | 17.333 | 41.864 | 35.643 | 22.493 | 59.686 | Read the flop types this way: rainbow has three suits, two-tone has two cards of one suit, monotone has three, and paired repeats a rank. ## Compared with a random hand A random hand would give A8s 61.94% and A6s 59.91%. Against each other the change is +2.47 points for A8s and -24.32 for A6s. **A8s and A6s 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A8s, all flops | 64.408 | 61.944 | +2.464 | 1.03978 | | A8s, rainbow, ten or higher | 67.310 | 61.944 | +5.366 | 1.08663 | | A8s, rainbow, nine or lower | 66.253 | 61.944 | +4.309 | 1.06956 | | A8s, two-tone | 64.817 | 61.944 | +2.873 | 1.04638 | | A8s, monotone | 60.539 | 61.944 | -1.405 | 0.97732 | | A8s, paired | 59.686 | 61.944 | -2.258 | 0.96355 | | A6s, all flops | 35.592 | 59.906 | -24.314 | 0.59413 | | A6s, rainbow, ten or higher | 32.690 | 59.906 | -27.216 | 0.54569 | | A6s, rainbow, nine or lower | 33.747 | 59.906 | -26.159 | 0.56333 | | A6s, two-tone | 35.183 | 59.906 | -24.723 | 0.58730 | | A6s, monotone | 39.461 | 59.906 | -20.445 | 0.65872 | | A6s, paired | 40.314 | 59.906 | -19.592 | 0.67295 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Every legal deal of A8s against A6s leaves the hands with no suit in common, so the suit split does not apply here. **A8s against A6s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | A8s wins | Ties | A6s wins | A8s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 0 | 0.00 | not possible | not possible | not possible | not possible | | No shared suit | 12 | 100.00 | 55.163 | 18.489 | 26.348 | 64.408 | ## How often this matchup comes up Exactly 12 specific deals fit this matchup in one seat order, which is 0.0007% of 1,624,350; both orders together give 24, or 0.0015%. ## A worked example To see what the equity is worth, imagine $100 each in a $200 pot. A8s is worth $128.82 on average (+$28.82); A6s is worth $71.18 (-$28.82). In 1,000 deals of exactly this matchup, expect about 552 won outright by A8s, about 263 won outright by A6s and about 185 split. ## The same matchup from the other side One page covers both views. From A6s' side the equity is 35.59%, and from A8s' side it is 64.41%. ## Keep exploring The calculator link fills in As8s against Ah6h, a deal where the two hands share no suit. Change any card to test your own hand. The neighboring matchups below swap one of the two hands for one of similar strength. - [Open As8s against Ah6h in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=As8s&p2=Ah6h) - [A8s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a8s.md) - [A6s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a6s.md) - [A8s vs KTo](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-kto.md) - [A8s vs QTs](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-qts.md) - [KTs vs A6s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kts-vs-a6s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed All 1,712,304 five-card boards are dealt for every suit pattern among the 12 specific deals of A8s against A6s, and both hands are scored on each. That is a full count, so the percentages are exact. Ties are half a win each, and each board appears once per flop it contains. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [A8s vs KTo: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-kto.md) - [A8s vs QTs: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-qts.md) - [KTs vs A6s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kts-vs-a6s.md)