--- title: "AJs vs KQs: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ajs-vs-kqs.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ajs-vs-kqs" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "Who is ahead, AJs or KQs? AJs leads 58.97% to 41.03% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ajs-vs-66.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ajs-vs-a9s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ako-vs-kqs.md"] --- # AJs vs KQs: preflop equity Who is ahead, AJs or KQs? AJs leads 58.97% to 41.03% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Dealt all in against each other, AJs takes 58.97% of the pot on average and KQs takes the other 41.03%. ## AJs against KQs: the numbers **Exact preflop results for AJs against KQs, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AJs | 58.708 | 0.524 | 40.768 | 58.970 | | KQs | 40.768 | 0.524 | 58.708 | 41.030 | Each side holds one of the suited hands: AJs and KQs. Neither hand shares a rank with the other, so this is a contest of high cards, connection and suits. A 17.94 point lead is real, and KQs still takes about 408 of every 1,000 deals outright. Ties are 0.52% of the outcomes here; each tied board gives both hands half the pot. In the ranking of all 169 starting hands, AJs is number 11 and KQs is number 16. **Boards behind the percentages: 27,396,864 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AJs | 16,084,000 | 144,000 | 11,169,000 | | KQs | 11,169,000 | 144,000 | 16,084,000 | The board total is exact, 16 deals at 1,712,304 boards each. Won, tied and lost counts are rounded to the nearest thousand from the five-decimal percentages. **AJs against KQs read as odds** | Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AJs | 1.437 | 1.703 | 2.453 | 0.696 | | KQs | 0.696 | 2.453 | 1.703 | 1.437 | 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 Break the boards down by their first three cards and AJs is strongest on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) (74.38%) and weakest on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better (53.37%). AJs stays ahead on all five textures, but the swing between them is large, so how the flop looks matters a great deal. **AJs against KQs by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | AJs wins | Ties | KQs wins | AJs equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 23.138 | 53.332 | 0.068 | 46.600 | 53.366 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 7.771 | 73.810 | 1.142 | 25.048 | 74.381 | | Two-tone | 46.727 | 57.722 | 0.292 | 41.986 | 57.868 | | Monotone | 5.273 | 54.243 | 3.422 | 42.335 | 55.954 | | Paired | 17.091 | 63.193 | 0.600 | 36.207 | 63.493 | 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, AJs holds 65.39% and KQs holds 63.40%. Facing each other changes that by -6.42 points for AJs and -22.37 points for KQs. **AJs and KQs 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AJs, all flops | 58.970 | 65.393 | -6.423 | 0.90178 | | AJs, rainbow, ten or higher | 53.366 | 65.393 | -12.027 | 0.81608 | | AJs, rainbow, nine or lower | 74.381 | 65.393 | +8.988 | 1.13745 | | AJs, two-tone | 57.868 | 65.393 | -7.525 | 0.88493 | | AJs, monotone | 55.954 | 65.393 | -9.439 | 0.85566 | | AJs, paired | 63.493 | 65.393 | -1.900 | 0.97094 | | KQs, all flops | 41.030 | 63.400 | -22.370 | 0.64716 | | KQs, rainbow, ten or higher | 46.634 | 63.400 | -16.766 | 0.73555 | | KQs, rainbow, nine or lower | 25.619 | 63.400 | -37.781 | 0.40409 | | KQs, two-tone | 42.132 | 63.400 | -21.268 | 0.66454 | | KQs, monotone | 44.046 | 63.400 | -19.354 | 0.69473 | | KQs, paired | 36.507 | 63.400 | -26.893 | 0.57582 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Suit overlap shows up in the numbers. With a suit in common AJs has 61.08% equity, and with none in common it has 58.27%. AJs does better with a shared suit, by 2.81 points. **AJs against KQs by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | AJs wins | Ties | KQs wins | AJs equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 4 | 25.00 | 60.780 | 0.603 | 38.617 | 61.081 | | No shared suit | 12 | 75.00 | 58.018 | 0.497 | 41.485 | 58.266 | ## How often this matchup comes up Out of 1,624,350 ways to deal two seats two cards each, 16 are AJs in one seat and KQs 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, AJs' average share is $117.94 (a gain of $17.94) and KQs' is $82.06 (a loss of $17.94). Think in thousands: about 587 of 1,000 go to AJs, about 408 go to KQs, and about 5 are chopped. ## The same matchup from the other side KQs against AJs adds nothing new: it is 41.03% for KQs and 58.97% for AJs, the same figures reversed. ## Keep exploring The calculator link fills in AsJs against KhQh, 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 AsJs against KhQh in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=AsJs&p2=KhQh) - [AJs combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/ajs.md) - [KQs combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/kqs.md) - [AJs vs 66](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ajs-vs-66.md) - [AJs vs A9s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ajs-vs-a9s.md) - [AKo vs KQs](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ako-vs-kqs.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed Nothing here is simulated. The 16 deals of AJs against KQs 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 - [AJs vs 66: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ajs-vs-66.md) - [AJs vs A9s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ajs-vs-a9s.md) - [AKo vs KQs: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ako-vs-kqs.md)