--- title: "AKs vs A3s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-a3s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-a3s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "AKs is a big favorite over A3s before the flop: 70.67% to 29.33% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-qjo.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-k9o.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/77-vs-a3s.md"] --- # AKs vs A3s: preflop equity AKs is a big favorite over A3s before the flop: 70.67% to 29.33% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. The exact count puts AKs at 70.67% and A3s at 29.33% when the two hands see all five board cards. ## AKs against A3s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for AKs against A3s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AKs | 68.461 | 4.422 | 27.117 | 70.672 | | A3s | 27.117 | 4.422 | 68.461 | 29.328 | Each side holds one of the suited hands: AKs and A3s. 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. AKs is the clear favorite, though A3s gets there on roughly one board in 3. Ties are 4.42% of the outcomes here; each tied board gives both hands half the pot. In the ranking of all 169 starting hands, AKs is number 8 and A3s is number 38. **Boards behind the percentages: 20,547,648 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AKs | 14,067,000 | 909,000 | 5,572,000 | | A3s | 5,572,000 | 909,000 | 14,067,000 | 12 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. **AKs against A3s read as odds** | Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AKs | 2.410 | 1.461 | 3.688 | 0.415 | | A3s | 0.415 | 3.688 | 1.461 | 2.410 | The last column is the break-even price: the pot odds a call needs to offer, as a ratio of pot to call. ## Who is ahead on which flops By flop texture, AKs' equity runs from 56.77% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) up to 77.29% on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better. AKs stays ahead on all five textures, but the swing between them is large, so how the flop looks matters a great deal. **AKs against A3s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | AKs wins | Ties | A3s wins | AKs equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 23.867 | 76.082 | 2.417 | 21.501 | 77.291 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 7.042 | 54.603 | 4.337 | 41.060 | 56.771 | | Two-tone | 46.543 | 68.538 | 2.564 | 28.898 | 69.820 | | Monotone | 5.215 | 62.083 | 4.580 | 33.337 | 64.373 | | Paired | 17.333 | 65.310 | 12.160 | 22.530 | 71.390 | 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, 67.05% for AKs and 58.22% for A3s. This opponent changes them by +3.62 and -28.89 points. **AKs and A3s 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AKs, all flops | 70.672 | 67.045 | +3.627 | 1.05410 | | AKs, rainbow, ten or higher | 77.291 | 67.045 | +10.246 | 1.15282 | | AKs, rainbow, nine or lower | 56.771 | 67.045 | -10.274 | 0.84676 | | AKs, two-tone | 69.820 | 67.045 | +2.775 | 1.04139 | | AKs, monotone | 64.373 | 67.045 | -2.672 | 0.96015 | | AKs, paired | 71.390 | 67.045 | +4.345 | 1.06481 | | A3s, all flops | 29.328 | 58.220 | -28.892 | 0.50374 | | A3s, rainbow, ten or higher | 22.709 | 58.220 | -35.511 | 0.39005 | | A3s, rainbow, nine or lower | 43.229 | 58.220 | -14.991 | 0.74251 | | A3s, two-tone | 30.180 | 58.220 | -28.040 | 0.51838 | | A3s, monotone | 35.627 | 58.220 | -22.593 | 0.61194 | | A3s, paired | 28.610 | 58.220 | -29.610 | 0.49141 | ## Does a shared suit matter? The hands cannot hold a suit in common here, which leaves a single case and a single number: 70.67% for AKs. **AKs against A3s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | AKs wins | Ties | A3s wins | AKs equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 0 | 0.00 | not possible | not possible | not possible | not possible | | No shared suit | 12 | 100.00 | 68.461 | 4.422 | 27.117 | 70.672 | ## How often this matchup comes up AKs against A3s is made up of 12 specific-card matchups in one seat order, 0.0007% of the 1,624,350 ordered deals, and 24 counting both seat orders, 0.0015%. ## A worked example Worked example: both players commit $100, so $200 sits in the middle. Over every board, AKs' average share is $141.34 (a gain of $41.34) and A3s' is $58.66 (a loss of $41.34). Per 1,000 deals: AKs wins about 685, A3s wins about 271, and about 44 end in a split pot. ## The same matchup from the other side If you came looking for A3s against AKs, the numbers are the same with the hands swapped: 29.33% and 70.67%. ## Keep exploring AsKs against Ah3h 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 AsKs against Ah3h in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=AsKs&p2=Ah3h) - [AKs combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/aks.md) - [A3s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a3s.md) - [AKs vs QJo](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-qjo.md) - [AKs vs K9o](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-k9o.md) - [77 vs A3s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/77-vs-a3s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed We counted every case. Each suit pattern of the 12 specific AKs against A3s deals meets all 1,712,304 boards, and the better five-card hand wins; a split pot is half a win each. The flop table reads each board under all ten of its three-card flops. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [AKs vs QJo: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-qjo.md) - [AKs vs K9o: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-k9o.md) - [77 vs A3s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/77-vs-a3s.md)