AKs
70.94%
Wins 68.80%, ties 4.28%
A8s
29.06%
Wins 26.92%, ties 4.28%
AKs against A8s: the numbers
| Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AKs | 68.803 | 4.280 | 26.917 | 70.943 |
| A8s | 26.917 | 4.280 | 68.803 | 29.057 |
Both hands are suited hands: AKs and A8s. 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 A8s gets there on roughly one board in 3. The tie share is 4.28%: on those boards the pot is chopped and neither hand wins outright.
Among the 169 starting hands, AKs is number 8 and A8s is number 21 by strength against a random hand.
| Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about |
|---|---|---|---|
| AKs | 14,137,000 | 879,000 | 5,531,000 |
| A8s | 5,531,000 | 879,000 | 14,137,000 |
The board total is exact, 12 deals at 1,712,304 boards each. Won, tied and lost counts are rounded to the nearest thousand from the five-decimal percentages.
| Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AKs | 2.442 | 1.453 | 3.715 | 0.410 |
| A8s | 0.410 | 3.715 | 1.453 | 2.442 |
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 AKs is strongest on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better (77.41%) and weakest on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) (58.49%). AKs stays ahead on all five textures, but the swing between them is large, so how the flop looks matters a great deal.
| Flop | Share of flops | AKs wins | Ties | A8s wins | AKs equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rainbow, ten or higher | 23.867 | 76.222 | 2.378 | 21.400 | 77.411 |
| Rainbow, nine or lower | 7.042 | 56.379 | 4.221 | 39.400 | 58.490 |
| Two-tone | 46.543 | 68.932 | 2.500 | 28.568 | 70.182 |
| Monotone | 5.215 | 62.245 | 4.507 | 33.248 | 64.498 |
| Paired | 17.333 | 65.262 | 11.634 | 23.104 | 71.079 |
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 A8s 61.94%. Against each other the change is +3.89 points for AKs and -32.88 for A8s.
| Case | Equity here | Against a random hand | Change in points | Times the random-hand equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AKs, all flops | 70.943 | 67.045 | +3.898 | 1.05814 |
| AKs, rainbow, ten or higher | 77.411 | 67.045 | +10.366 | 1.15461 |
| AKs, rainbow, nine or lower | 58.490 | 67.045 | -8.555 | 0.87240 |
| AKs, two-tone | 70.182 | 67.045 | +3.137 | 1.04679 |
| AKs, monotone | 64.498 | 67.045 | -2.547 | 0.96201 |
| AKs, paired | 71.079 | 67.045 | +4.034 | 1.06017 |
| A8s, all flops | 29.057 | 61.944 | -32.887 | 0.46908 |
| A8s, rainbow, ten or higher | 22.589 | 61.944 | -39.355 | 0.36467 |
| A8s, rainbow, nine or lower | 41.510 | 61.944 | -20.434 | 0.67012 |
| A8s, two-tone | 29.818 | 61.944 | -32.126 | 0.48137 |
| A8s, monotone | 35.502 | 61.944 | -26.442 | 0.57313 |
| A8s, paired | 28.921 | 61.944 | -33.023 | 0.46689 |
Does a shared suit matter?
For this pair the shared-suit row is empty: the two hands cannot both own a card of one suit without reusing a card.
| Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | AKs wins | Ties | A8s wins | AKs equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Share a suit | 0 | 0.00 | not possible | not possible | not possible | not possible |
| No shared suit | 12 | 100.00 | 68.803 | 4.280 | 26.917 | 70.943 |
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
Try it with money: two players each put in $100 and the whole board runs out every possible way. AKs averages $141.88 from the $200, up $41.88; A8s averages $58.12, down $41.88.
Run 1,000 deals and the tally comes out near 688 for AKs, 269 for A8s and 43 ties.
The same matchup from the other side
The mirror image, A8s against AKs, is 29.06% to 70.94%, and its address redirects to this page.
Keep exploring
Try AsKs against Ah8h 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.
How this was computed
The figures are counted, not estimated: 1,712,304 boards for every suit pattern of the 12 specific deals, with both seven-card hands compared each time. Equity gives half a win for a tie. For the flop rows, a board is counted once under each of the ten flops inside it.
Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used.
Bring your own hands to a session
Review the spots you actually play against these numbers in a Game Assessment, and leave with a one-page written plan.
Book a session