--- title: "AKs vs A4s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-a4s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-a4s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "AKs is a big favorite over A4s before the flop: 70.24% to 29.76% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-a3s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-qjo.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/77-vs-a4s.md"] --- # AKs vs A4s: preflop equity AKs is a big favorite over A4s before the flop: 70.24% to 29.76% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Over all 1,712,304 boards that can follow this deal, AKs finishes with 70.24% of the pot and A4s with 29.76%. ## AKs against A4s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for AKs against A4s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AKs | 68.061 | 4.364 | 27.575 | 70.243 | | A4s | 27.575 | 4.364 | 68.061 | 29.757 | Both hands are suited hands: AKs and A4s. 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 well ahead, and A4s needs a specific kind of board to catch up. Ties are part of the picture: 4.36% of boards end in a split pot, and each side counts that as half a win. Place 8 of 169 belongs to AKs and place 35 belongs to A4s in the ranking against a random hand. **Boards behind the percentages: 20,547,648 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AKs | 13,985,000 | 897,000 | 5,666,000 | | A4s | 5,666,000 | 897,000 | 13,985,000 | The total is exact: 12 specific deals times 1,712,304 boards. The three counts are approximate, worked out from the percentages to five decimals and rounded to the nearest thousand. **AKs against A4s 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 | 2.361 | 1.469 | 3.626 | 0.424 | | A4s | 0.424 | 3.626 | 1.469 | 2.361 | 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 The flop changes the picture. AKs does best on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better, at 77.01%, and worst on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower), at 55.55%. 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 A4s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | AKs wins | Ties | A4s wins | AKs equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 23.867 | 75.803 | 2.404 | 21.793 | 77.005 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 7.042 | 53.450 | 4.204 | 42.346 | 55.552 | | Two-tone | 46.543 | 68.124 | 2.530 | 29.346 | 69.389 | | Monotone | 5.215 | 61.789 | 4.558 | 33.653 | 64.068 | | Paired | 17.333 | 65.055 | 11.993 | 22.952 | 71.052 | 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 A random hand would give AKs 67.05% and A4s 59.03%. Against each other the change is +3.19 points for AKs and -29.27 for A4s. **AKs and A4s 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 | 70.243 | 67.045 | +3.198 | 1.04770 | | AKs, rainbow, ten or higher | 77.005 | 67.045 | +9.960 | 1.14856 | | AKs, rainbow, nine or lower | 55.552 | 67.045 | -11.493 | 0.82858 | | AKs, two-tone | 69.389 | 67.045 | +2.344 | 1.03496 | | AKs, monotone | 64.068 | 67.045 | -2.977 | 0.95560 | | AKs, paired | 71.052 | 67.045 | +4.007 | 1.05977 | | A4s, all flops | 29.757 | 59.034 | -29.277 | 0.50407 | | A4s, rainbow, ten or higher | 22.995 | 59.034 | -36.039 | 0.38952 | | A4s, rainbow, nine or lower | 44.448 | 59.034 | -14.586 | 0.75292 | | A4s, two-tone | 30.611 | 59.034 | -28.423 | 0.51853 | | A4s, monotone | 35.932 | 59.034 | -23.102 | 0.60867 | | A4s, paired | 28.948 | 59.034 | -30.086 | 0.49036 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Suits do not split this matchup, because no legal deal has the hands holding the same suit. **AKs against A4s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | AKs wins | Ties | A4s wins | AKs equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 0 | 0.00 | not possible | not possible | not possible | not possible | | No shared suit | 12 | 100.00 | 68.061 | 4.364 | 27.575 | 70.243 | ## How often this matchup comes up Exactly 12 specific deals fit this matchup in one seat order, which is 0.0007% of 1,624,350; both orders together give 24, or 0.0015%. ## A worked example To see what the equity is worth, imagine $100 each in a $200 pot. AKs is worth $140.48 on average (+$40.48); A4s is worth $59.52 (-$40.48). Over a long run, 1,000 deals split into about 680 for AKs, 276 for A4s and 44 tied. ## The same matchup from the other side One page covers both views. From A4s' side the equity is 29.76%, and from AKs' side it is 70.24%. ## Keep exploring AsKs against Ah4h 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 Ah4h in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=AsKs&p2=Ah4h) - [AKs combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/aks.md) - [A4s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a4s.md) - [AKs vs A3s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-a3s.md) - [AKs vs QJo](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-qjo.md) - [77 vs A4s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/77-vs-a4s.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 A4s 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 A3s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-a3s.md) - [AKs vs QJo: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-qjo.md) - [77 vs A4s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/77-vs-a4s.md)