--- title: "AKs vs A8s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-a8s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-a8s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "AKs is a big favorite over A8s before the flop: 70.94% to 29.06% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-kts.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-kqo.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/77-vs-a8s.md"] --- # AKs vs A8s: preflop equity AKs is a big favorite over A8s before the flop: 70.94% to 29.06% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. The exact count puts AKs at 70.94% and A8s at 29.06% when the two hands see all five board cards. ## AKs against A8s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for AKs against A8s, in percent** | 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. **Boards behind the percentages: 20,547,648 counted in all** | 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. **AKs against A8s 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 | 2.442 | 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. **AKs against A8s by flop texture, in percent** | 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. **AKs and A8s 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 | 70.943 | 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. **AKs against A8s by suit overlap, in percent** | 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. - [Open AsKs against Ah8h in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=AsKs&p2=Ah8h) - [AKs combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/aks.md) - [A8s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a8s.md) - [AKs vs KTs](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-kts.md) - [AKs vs KQo](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-kqo.md) - [77 vs A8s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/77-vs-a8s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## 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. ## Related - [AKs vs KTs: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-kts.md) - [AKs vs KQo: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aks-vs-kqo.md) - [77 vs A8s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/77-vs-a8s.md)