--- title: "A8s vs KQo: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-kqo.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-kqo" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "Who is ahead, A8s or KQo? A8s leads 59.70% to 40.30% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-a7s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-a9o.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kts-vs-kqo.md"] --- # A8s vs KQo: preflop equity Who is ahead, A8s or KQo? A8s leads 59.70% to 40.30% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. 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 against KQo: the numbers **Exact preflop results for A8s against KQo, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A8s | 59.468 | 0.459 | 40.073 | 59.698 | | KQo | 40.073 | 0.459 | 59.468 | 40.302 | 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** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A8s | 48,877,000 | 377,000 | 32,936,000 | | KQo | 32,936,000 | 377,000 | 48,877,000 | 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** | Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A8s | 1.481 | 1.682 | 2.495 | 0.675 | | KQo | 0.675 | 2.495 | 1.682 | 1.481 | 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** | Flop | Share of flops | A8s wins | Ties | KQo wins | A8s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 23.988 | 51.883 | 0.120 | 47.997 | 51.943 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 7.042 | 76.999 | 0.957 | 22.044 | 77.478 | | Two-tone | 46.667 | 59.217 | 0.286 | 40.497 | 59.360 | | Monotone | 5.212 | 55.196 | 2.381 | 42.423 | 56.386 | | Paired | 17.091 | 64.879 | 0.612 | 34.509 | 65.185 | 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** | Case | Equity here | Against a random hand | Change in points | Times the random-hand equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A8s, all flops | 59.698 | 61.944 | -2.246 | 0.96374 | | A8s, rainbow, ten or higher | 51.943 | 61.944 | -10.001 | 0.83855 | | A8s, rainbow, nine or lower | 77.478 | 61.944 | +15.534 | 1.25077 | | A8s, two-tone | 59.360 | 61.944 | -2.584 | 0.95828 | | A8s, monotone | 56.386 | 61.944 | -5.558 | 0.91027 | | A8s, paired | 65.185 | 61.944 | +3.241 | 1.05232 | | KQo, all flops | 40.302 | 61.456 | -21.154 | 0.65579 | | KQo, rainbow, ten or higher | 48.057 | 61.456 | -13.399 | 0.78197 | | KQo, rainbow, nine or lower | 22.522 | 61.456 | -38.934 | 0.36647 | | KQo, two-tone | 40.640 | 61.456 | -20.816 | 0.66129 | | KQo, monotone | 43.614 | 61.456 | -17.842 | 0.70968 | | KQo, paired | 34.815 | 61.456 | -26.641 | 0.56650 | ## 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** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | A8s wins | Ties | KQo wins | A8s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 24 | 50.00 | 59.101 | 0.499 | 40.400 | 59.351 | | No shared suit | 24 | 50.00 | 59.835 | 0.418 | 39.747 | 60.044 | ## 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. ## Keep exploring 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. - [Open As8s against KhQd in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=As8s&p2=KhQd) - [A8s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a8s.md) - [KQo combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/kqo.md) - [A8s vs A7s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-a7s.md) - [A8s vs A9o](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-a9o.md) - [KTs vs KQo](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kts-vs-kqo.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## 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. ## Related - [A8s vs A7s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-a7s.md) - [A8s vs A9o: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-a9o.md) - [KTs vs KQo: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kts-vs-kqo.md)