--- title: "AKo vs KQs: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ako-vs-kqs.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ako-vs-kqs" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "AKo is a big favorite over KQs before the flop: 70.42% to 29.58% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ako-vs-66.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ako-vs-a9s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ats-vs-kqs.md"] --- # AKo vs KQs: preflop equity AKo is a big favorite over KQs before the flop: 70.42% to 29.58% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. If AKo and KQs get all the chips in before the flop, AKo owns 70.42% of the pot in the long run and KQs owns 29.58%. ## AKo against KQs: the numbers **Exact preflop results for AKo against KQs, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AKo | 69.848 | 1.151 | 29.001 | 70.423 | | KQs | 29.001 | 1.151 | 69.848 | 29.577 | AKo and KQs are an offsuit hand and a suited hand, in that order. Sharing a rank is the signature of a dominated hand, since the weaker hand is usually out-kicked when the shared rank shows up. That is a clear edge, 70.42% to 29.58%, but KQs still wins often enough that one hand proves nothing. Ties are part of the picture: 1.15% of boards end in a split pot, and each side counts that as half a win. In the ranking of all 169 starting hands, AKo is number 12 and KQs is number 16. **Boards behind the percentages: 61,642,944 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AKo | 43,056,000 | 710,000 | 17,877,000 | | KQs | 17,877,000 | 710,000 | 43,056,000 | 36 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 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) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AKo | 2.381 | 1.432 | 3.448 | 0.420 | | KQs | 0.420 | 3.448 | 1.432 | 2.381 | 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 If you know the kind of flop that came, the numbers shift: AKo holds 83.56% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) and 65.53% on monotone flops. 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 KQs by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | AKo wins | Ties | KQs wins | AKo equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 23.177 | 67.955 | 0.767 | 31.278 | 68.338 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 7.771 | 82.913 | 1.293 | 15.794 | 83.559 | | Two-tone | 46.527 | 68.149 | 0.836 | 31.015 | 68.567 | | Monotone | 5.192 | 64.241 | 2.581 | 33.178 | 65.532 | | Paired | 17.333 | 72.762 | 2.018 | 25.220 | 73.771 | Flop types: rainbow means three different suits, two-tone means one suit twice, monotone means one suit three times, paired means a repeated rank. ## Compared with a random hand Start from the random-hand figures, 65.32% for AKo and 63.40% for KQs. This opponent changes them by +5.10 and -33.82 points. **AKo 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AKo, all flops | 70.423 | 65.320 | +5.103 | 1.07812 | | AKo, rainbow, ten or higher | 68.338 | 65.320 | +3.018 | 1.04620 | | AKo, rainbow, nine or lower | 83.559 | 65.320 | +18.239 | 1.27923 | | AKo, two-tone | 68.567 | 65.320 | +3.247 | 1.04971 | | AKo, monotone | 65.532 | 65.320 | +0.212 | 1.00325 | | AKo, paired | 73.771 | 65.320 | +8.451 | 1.12938 | | KQs, all flops | 29.577 | 63.400 | -33.823 | 0.46651 | | KQs, rainbow, ten or higher | 31.662 | 63.400 | -31.738 | 0.49940 | | KQs, rainbow, nine or lower | 16.441 | 63.400 | -46.959 | 0.25932 | | KQs, two-tone | 31.433 | 63.400 | -31.967 | 0.49579 | | KQs, monotone | 34.468 | 63.400 | -28.932 | 0.54366 | | KQs, paired | 26.229 | 63.400 | -37.171 | 0.41371 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Two kinds of deal exist here. In 12 of them the hands share a suit and AKo holds 71.50%. In 24 they do not, and it holds 69.89%. AKo does better with a shared suit, by 1.61 points. **AKo against KQs by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | AKo wins | Ties | KQs wins | AKo equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 12 | 33.33 | 70.890 | 1.217 | 27.893 | 71.498 | | No shared suit | 24 | 66.67 | 69.327 | 1.118 | 29.555 | 69.886 | ## How often this matchup comes up Out of 1,624,350 ways to deal two seats two cards each, 36 are AKo in one seat and KQs in the other (0.0022%); with the seats swapped too, 72 (0.0044%). ## A worked example Put $100 each into a $200 pot and deal every board once: AKo averages $140.84 back, ahead of its $100 by $40.84, while KQs averages $59.16, short of its $100 by $40.84. Scaled to 1,000 deals, that is roughly 698 wins for AKo, 290 for KQs and 12 chopped pots. ## The same matchup from the other side Swap the hands and you get KQs with 29.58% against AKo with 70.42%. We keep one page per matchup, with the better-ranked hand first. ## Keep exploring AsKh against KdQd is a ready-made deal for the calculator, with no suit in common between the hands. The neighboring matchups below replace one hand with another of similar strength. - [Open AsKh against KdQd in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=AsKh&p2=KdQd) - [AKo combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/ako.md) - [KQs combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/kqs.md) - [AKo vs 66](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ako-vs-66.md) - [AKo vs A9s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ako-vs-a9s.md) - [ATs vs KQs](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ats-vs-kqs.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed All 1,712,304 five-card boards are dealt for every suit pattern among the 36 specific deals of AKo against KQs, and both hands are scored on each. That is a full count, so the percentages are exact. Ties are half a win each, and each board appears once per flop it contains. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [AKo vs 66: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ako-vs-66.md) - [AKo vs A9s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ako-vs-a9s.md) - [ATs vs KQs: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ats-vs-kqs.md)