A8s vs KQo: preflop equity

If A8s and KQo get all the chips in before the flop, A8s owns 59.70% of the pot in the long run and KQo owns 40.30%.

A8s

59.70%

Wins 59.47%, ties 0.46%

KQo

40.30%

Wins 40.07%, ties 0.46%

Equity counts a tie as half a win. Exact over every board.

A8s against KQo: the numbers

Exact preflop results for A8s against KQo, in percent
HandWinsTiesLosesEquity
A8s59.4680.45940.07359.698
KQo40.0730.45959.46840.302

One side is a suited hand, the other is an offsuit hand. With no overlap in ranks, every card that pairs one hand is a card that does not pair the other.

That is a modest edge, the kind that shows up over many hands and is easy to miss in one. About 0.46% of boards chop the pot, which is why equity sits slightly above the win figure for both hands.

Ranked by equity against a random hand, A8s is number 21 of the 169 starting hands and KQo is number 23.

Boards behind the percentages: 82,190,592 counted in all
HandBoards won, aboutBoards tied, aboutBoards lost, about
A8s48,877,000377,00032,936,000
KQo32,936,000377,00048,877,000

48 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.

A8s against KQo read as odds
HandEquity as odds (to 1)Wins one deal inLoses one deal inPot odds needed to call (to 1)
A8s1.4811.6822.4950.675
KQo0.6752.4951.6821.481

The last column is the smallest pot odds, written as a pot-to-call ratio, at which a call breaks even with this equity.

Who is ahead on which flops

Low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) are the best for A8s (77.48%); rainbow flops topped by a ten or better are the worst (51.94%). A8s stays ahead on all five textures, but the swing between them is large, so how the flop looks matters a great deal.

A8s against KQo by flop texture, in percent
FlopShare of flopsA8s winsTiesKQo winsA8s equity
Rainbow, ten or higher23.98851.8830.12047.99751.943
Rainbow, nine or lower7.04276.9990.95722.04477.478
Two-tone46.66759.2170.28640.49759.360
Monotone5.21255.1962.38142.42356.386
Paired17.09164.8790.61234.50965.185

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

Start from the random-hand figures, 61.94% for A8s and 61.46% for KQo. This opponent changes them by -2.24 and -21.16 points.

A8s and KQo here compared with each against a random hand, in percent
CaseEquity hereAgainst a random handChange in pointsTimes the random-hand equity
A8s, all flops59.69861.944-2.2460.96374
A8s, rainbow, ten or higher51.94361.944-10.0010.83855
A8s, rainbow, nine or lower77.47861.944+15.5341.25077
A8s, two-tone59.36061.944-2.5840.95828
A8s, monotone56.38661.944-5.5580.91027
A8s, paired65.18561.944+3.2411.05232
KQo, all flops40.30261.456-21.1540.65579
KQo, rainbow, ten or higher48.05761.456-13.3990.78197
KQo, rainbow, nine or lower22.52261.456-38.9340.36647
KQo, two-tone40.64061.456-20.8160.66129
KQo, monotone43.61461.456-17.8420.70968
KQo, paired34.81561.456-26.6410.56650

Does a shared suit matter?

Suit overlap shows up in the numbers. With a suit in common A8s has 59.35% equity, and with none in common it has 60.04%. A8s does better with no shared suit, by 0.69 points.

A8s against KQo by suit overlap, in percent
DealsSpecific dealsShare of dealsA8s winsTiesKQo winsA8s equity
Share a suit2450.0059.1010.49940.40059.351
No shared suit2450.0059.8350.41839.74760.044

How often this matchup comes up

Counting specific cards, A8s against KQo appears in 48 of the 1,624,350 ordered heads-up deals (0.0030%), and in 96 when the seats are swapped too (0.0059%).

A worked example

Try it with money: two players each put in $100 and the whole board runs out every possible way. A8s averages $119.40 from the $200, up $19.40; KQo averages $80.60, down $19.40.

Over a long run, 1,000 deals split into about 595 for A8s, 401 for KQo and 4 tied.

The same matchup from the other side

KQo versus A8s is this same page seen from the other hand: 40.30% for KQo, 59.70% for A8s.

The calculator link fills in As8s against KhQd, 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.

How this was computed

Nothing here is simulated. The 48 deals of A8s against KQo fall into a few suit patterns, each dealt against all 1,712,304 boards, with both best five-card hands compared on every board. Ties give each hand half a win, and the flop rows count a board under each of its ten flops.

Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used.

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