--- title: "AKo vs KQo: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ako-vs-kqo.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ako-vs-kqo" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "AKo is a big favorite over KQo before the flop: 74.77% to 25.23% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ako-vs-a7s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ako-vs-a9o.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ats-vs-kqo.md"] --- # AKo vs KQo: preflop equity AKo is a big favorite over KQo before the flop: 74.77% to 25.23% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. If AKo and KQo get all the chips in before the flop, AKo owns 74.77% of the pot in the long run and KQo owns 25.23%. ## AKo against KQo: the numbers **Exact preflop results for AKo against KQo, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AKo | 74.196 | 1.156 | 24.648 | 74.774 | | KQo | 24.648 | 1.156 | 74.196 | 25.226 | This is a contest between two offsuit hands, AKo and KQo. The two hands share a rank, and the one with the better other card dominates: it wins most kicker battles when that shared rank hits. AKo is the clear favorite, though KQo gets there on roughly one board in 4. Ties are 1.16% of the outcomes here; each tied board gives both hands half the pot. Place 12 of 169 belongs to AKo and place 23 belongs to KQo in the ranking against a random hand. **Boards behind the percentages: 184,928,832 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AKo | 137,210,000 | 2,138,000 | 45,581,000 | | KQo | 45,581,000 | 2,138,000 | 137,210,000 | 108 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. **AKo 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) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AKo | 2.964 | 1.348 | 4.057 | 0.337 | | KQo | 0.337 | 4.057 | 1.348 | 2.964 | 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 Break the boards down by their first three cards and AKo is strongest on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) (86.68%) and weakest on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better (70.47%). AKo stays ahead on all five textures, but the swing between them is large, so how the flop looks matters a great deal. **AKo against KQo by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | AKo wins | Ties | KQo wins | AKo equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 23.275 | 70.081 | 0.785 | 29.134 | 70.474 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 7.771 | 86.003 | 1.356 | 12.641 | 86.681 | | Two-tone | 46.477 | 73.683 | 0.894 | 25.423 | 74.130 | | Monotone | 5.144 | 69.775 | 1.994 | 28.231 | 70.772 | | Paired | 17.333 | 77.115 | 2.020 | 20.865 | 78.125 | Read the flop types this way: rainbow has three suits, two-tone has two cards of one suit, monotone has three, and paired repeats a rank. ## Compared with a random hand Compared with a random opponent, this matchup shifts AKo from 65.32% by +9.45 points and KQo from 61.46% by -36.23 points. **AKo 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AKo, all flops | 74.774 | 65.320 | +9.454 | 1.14473 | | AKo, rainbow, ten or higher | 70.474 | 65.320 | +5.154 | 1.07890 | | AKo, rainbow, nine or lower | 86.681 | 65.320 | +21.361 | 1.32702 | | AKo, two-tone | 74.130 | 65.320 | +8.810 | 1.13487 | | AKo, monotone | 70.772 | 65.320 | +5.452 | 1.08347 | | AKo, paired | 78.125 | 65.320 | +12.805 | 1.19603 | | KQo, all flops | 25.226 | 61.456 | -36.230 | 0.41047 | | KQo, rainbow, ten or higher | 29.526 | 61.456 | -31.930 | 0.48044 | | KQo, rainbow, nine or lower | 13.319 | 61.456 | -48.137 | 0.21672 | | KQo, two-tone | 25.870 | 61.456 | -35.586 | 0.42095 | | KQo, monotone | 29.228 | 61.456 | -32.228 | 0.47559 | | KQo, paired | 21.875 | 61.456 | -39.581 | 0.35595 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Does suit overlap move the numbers? AKo has 74.95% when the hands share a suit and 74.17% when they do not. AKo does better with a shared suit, by 0.78 points. **AKo against KQo by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | AKo wins | Ties | KQo wins | AKo equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 84 | 77.78 | 74.358 | 1.178 | 24.464 | 74.947 | | No shared suit | 24 | 22.22 | 73.628 | 1.080 | 25.292 | 74.168 | ## How often this matchup comes up Counting specific cards, AKo against KQo appears in 108 of the 1,624,350 ordered heads-up deals (0.0066%), and in 216 when the seats are swapped too (0.0133%). ## A worked example Worked example: both players commit $100, so $200 sits in the middle. Over every board, AKo's average share is $149.54 (a gain of $49.54) and KQo's is $50.46 (a loss of $49.54). Run 1,000 deals and the tally comes out near 742 for AKo, 246 for KQo and 12 ties. ## The same matchup from the other side KQo versus AKo is this same page seen from the other hand: 25.23% for KQo, 74.77% for AKo. ## Keep exploring Try AsKh against KdQc 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 AsKh against KdQc in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=AsKh&p2=KdQc) - [AKo combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/ako.md) - [KQo combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/kqo.md) - [AKo vs A7s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ako-vs-a7s.md) - [AKo vs A9o](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ako-vs-a9o.md) - [ATs vs KQo](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ats-vs-kqo.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed Each figure is a complete count over boards. Take the 108 specific deals, group them by suit pattern, deal all 1,712,304 boards against each, and compare the two seven-card hands. Equity counts a tie as half a win; the flop rows use every one of a board's ten flops. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [AKo vs A7s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ako-vs-a7s.md) - [AKo vs A9o: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ako-vs-a9o.md) - [ATs vs KQo: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ats-vs-kqo.md)