--- title: "A8s vs K9s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-k9s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-k9s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "Who is ahead, A8s or K9s? A8s leads 58.52% to 41.48% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-a5s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-a6s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kts-vs-k9s.md"] --- # A8s vs K9s: preflop equity Who is ahead, A8s or K9s? A8s leads 58.52% to 41.48% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Counting every board, the equity split is 58.52% for A8s and 41.48% for K9s, so A8s leads by 17.04 points. ## A8s against K9s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for A8s against K9s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A8s | 58.274 | 0.484 | 41.242 | 58.516 | | K9s | 41.242 | 0.484 | 58.274 | 41.484 | This is a contest between two suited hands, A8s and K9s. The two hands share no rank, which makes this a pure matchup of card strength, straight chances and flush chances. The lead is steady rather than large, and the flop still has plenty of say in who wins. Of every 100 boards, about 0.48 are split pots, and the equity figures already include them. In the ranking of all 169 starting hands, A8s is number 21 and K9s is number 29. **Boards behind the percentages: 27,396,864 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A8s | 15,965,000 | 133,000 | 11,299,000 | | K9s | 11,299,000 | 133,000 | 15,965,000 | Exact total: 16 deals times 1,712,304 boards. The other three counts come from the five-decimal percentages and are rounded to the nearest thousand, so read them as approximate. **A8s against K9s 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 | 1.411 | 1.716 | 2.425 | 0.709 | | K9s | 0.709 | 2.425 | 1.716 | 1.411 | In the last column, a pot-to-call ratio at or above the figure makes a call break even or better at this equity. ## Who is ahead on which flops Break the boards down by their first three cards and A8s is strongest on paired flops (63.17%) and weakest on monotone flops (55.69%). A8s stays ahead on all five textures. **A8s against K9s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | A8s wins | Ties | K9s wins | A8s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 24.543 | 58.303 | 0.161 | 41.536 | 58.383 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 6.366 | 56.611 | 0.706 | 42.683 | 56.964 | | Two-tone | 46.727 | 57.291 | 0.244 | 42.465 | 57.413 | | Monotone | 5.273 | 53.992 | 3.400 | 42.608 | 55.692 | | Paired | 17.091 | 62.860 | 0.624 | 36.516 | 63.172 | Rainbow flops have three suits, two-tone flops repeat one suit, monotone flops are all one suit, and paired flops repeat a rank. ## Compared with a random hand Against one random hand instead, A8s holds 61.94% and K9s holds 59.99%. Facing each other changes that by -3.42 points for A8s and -18.51 points for K9s. **A8s and K9s 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 | 58.516 | 61.944 | -3.428 | 0.94466 | | A8s, rainbow, ten or higher | 58.383 | 61.944 | -3.561 | 0.94251 | | A8s, rainbow, nine or lower | 56.964 | 61.944 | -4.980 | 0.91960 | | A8s, two-tone | 57.413 | 61.944 | -4.531 | 0.92685 | | A8s, monotone | 55.692 | 61.944 | -6.252 | 0.89907 | | A8s, paired | 63.172 | 61.944 | +1.228 | 1.01982 | | K9s, all flops | 41.484 | 59.988 | -18.504 | 0.69154 | | K9s, rainbow, ten or higher | 41.617 | 59.988 | -18.371 | 0.69376 | | K9s, rainbow, nine or lower | 43.036 | 59.988 | -16.952 | 0.71741 | | K9s, two-tone | 42.587 | 59.988 | -17.401 | 0.70993 | | K9s, monotone | 44.308 | 59.988 | -15.680 | 0.73861 | | K9s, paired | 36.828 | 59.988 | -23.160 | 0.61392 | ## Does a shared suit matter? When the hands share a suit, A8s holds 60.55%; when they do not, it holds 57.84%. A8s does better with a shared suit, by 2.71 points. **A8s against K9s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | A8s wins | Ties | K9s wins | A8s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 4 | 25.00 | 60.271 | 0.560 | 39.169 | 60.551 | | No shared suit | 12 | 75.00 | 57.608 | 0.459 | 41.933 | 57.838 | ## How often this matchup comes up How often does it happen? 16 of the 1,624,350 ordered deals (0.0010%) are A8s against K9s, and 32 (0.0020%) if either hand may sit in either seat. ## A worked example Try it with money: two players each put in $100 and the whole board runs out every possible way. A8s averages $117.04 from the $200, up $17.04; K9s averages $82.96, down $17.04. Out of 1,000 deals you should see around 583 outright wins for A8s, 412 for K9s, and 5 split pots. ## The same matchup from the other side If you came looking for K9s against A8s, the numbers are the same with the hands swapped: 41.48% and 58.52%. ## Keep exploring Try As8s against Kh9h 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 As8s against Kh9h in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=As8s&p2=Kh9h) - [A8s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a8s.md) - [K9s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/k9s.md) - [A8s vs A5s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-a5s.md) - [A8s vs A6s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-a6s.md) - [KTs vs K9s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kts-vs-k9s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed The figures are counted, not estimated: 1,712,304 boards for every suit pattern of the 16 specific deals, with both seven-card hands compared each time. Equity gives half a win for a tie. For the flop rows, a board is counted once under each of the ten flops inside it. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [A8s vs A5s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-a5s.md) - [A8s vs A6s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-a6s.md) - [KTs vs K9s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kts-vs-k9s.md)