--- title: "A8s vs QJs: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-qjs.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-qjs" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "Who is ahead, A8s or QJs? A8s leads 56.19% to 43.81% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-k9s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-a5s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kts-vs-qjs.md"] --- # A8s vs QJs: preflop equity Who is ahead, A8s or QJs? A8s leads 56.19% to 43.81% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Over all 1,712,304 boards that can follow this deal, A8s finishes with 56.19% of the pot and QJs with 43.81%. ## A8s against QJs: the numbers **Exact preflop results for A8s against QJs, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A8s | 55.950 | 0.486 | 43.564 | 56.193 | | QJs | 43.564 | 0.486 | 55.950 | 43.807 | A8s meets QJs, 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. A8s is ahead, but QJs is far from dead: it takes 436 of every 1,000 deals outright. A split pot comes up on 0.49% of boards, so the wins and the equity differ by half of that. Among the 169 starting hands, A8s is number 21 and QJs is number 28 by strength against a random hand. **Boards behind the percentages: 27,396,864 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A8s | 15,329,000 | 133,000 | 11,935,000 | | QJs | 11,935,000 | 133,000 | 15,329,000 | 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. **A8s against QJs 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 | 1.283 | 1.787 | 2.295 | 0.780 | | QJs | 0.780 | 2.295 | 1.787 | 1.283 | 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 Split by what the flop looks like, A8s peaks at 73.35% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) and bottoms out at 50.07% on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better. 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 QJs by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | A8s wins | Ties | QJs wins | A8s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 23.867 | 50.011 | 0.113 | 49.876 | 50.067 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 7.042 | 72.932 | 0.830 | 26.238 | 73.347 | | Two-tone | 46.727 | 54.850 | 0.246 | 44.904 | 54.973 | | Monotone | 5.273 | 52.079 | 3.402 | 44.519 | 53.780 | | Paired | 17.091 | 61.450 | 0.620 | 37.930 | 61.760 | 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 Compared with a random opponent, this matchup shifts A8s from 61.94% by -5.75 points and QJs from 60.26% by -16.45 points. **A8s and QJs 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 | 56.193 | 61.944 | -5.751 | 0.90716 | | A8s, rainbow, ten or higher | 50.067 | 61.944 | -11.877 | 0.80826 | | A8s, rainbow, nine or lower | 73.347 | 61.944 | +11.403 | 1.18409 | | A8s, two-tone | 54.973 | 61.944 | -6.971 | 0.88746 | | A8s, monotone | 53.780 | 61.944 | -8.164 | 0.86820 | | A8s, paired | 61.760 | 61.944 | -0.184 | 0.99703 | | QJs, all flops | 43.807 | 60.259 | -16.452 | 0.72698 | | QJs, rainbow, ten or higher | 49.933 | 60.259 | -10.326 | 0.82864 | | QJs, rainbow, nine or lower | 26.653 | 60.259 | -33.606 | 0.44231 | | QJs, two-tone | 45.027 | 60.259 | -15.232 | 0.74722 | | QJs, monotone | 46.220 | 60.259 | -14.039 | 0.76702 | | QJs, paired | 38.240 | 60.259 | -22.019 | 0.63459 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Of the deals of this matchup, 4 share a suit (A8s at 58.01%) and 12 do not (55.59%). A8s does better with a shared suit, by 2.42 points. **A8s against QJs by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | A8s wins | Ties | QJs wins | A8s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 4 | 25.00 | 57.728 | 0.562 | 41.710 | 58.009 | | No shared suit | 12 | 75.00 | 55.358 | 0.460 | 44.182 | 55.588 | ## How often this matchup comes up Out of 1,624,350 ways to deal two seats two cards each, 16 are A8s in one seat and QJs in the other (0.0010%); with the seats swapped too, 32 (0.0020%). ## A worked example Worked example: both players commit $100, so $200 sits in the middle. Over every board, A8s' average share is $112.38 (a gain of $12.38) and QJs' is $87.62 (a loss of $12.38). Scaled to 1,000 deals, that is roughly 559 wins for A8s, 436 for QJs and 5 chopped pots. ## The same matchup from the other side QJs versus A8s is this same page seen from the other hand: 43.81% for QJs, 56.19% for A8s. ## Keep exploring Try As8s against QhJh 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 QhJh in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=As8s&p2=QhJh) - [A8s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a8s.md) - [QJs combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/qjs.md) - [A8s vs K9s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-k9s.md) - [A8s vs A5s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-a5s.md) - [KTs vs QJs](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kts-vs-qjs.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed The page is built from a full enumeration: 1,712,304 boards, every suit pattern of the 16 specific deals, both seven-card hands evaluated. A tie is worth half a win to each hand, and a board is tallied under each of its ten possible flops for the texture rows. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [A8s vs K9s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-k9s.md) - [A8s vs A5s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a8s-vs-a5s.md) - [KTs vs QJs: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kts-vs-qjs.md)