--- title: "AQs vs A3s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aqs-vs-a3s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aqs-vs-a3s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "AQs is a big favorite over A3s before the flop: 70.16% to 29.85% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aqs-vs-qjo.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aqs-vs-k9o.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ajs-vs-a3s.md"] --- # AQs vs A3s: preflop equity AQs is a big favorite over A3s before the flop: 70.16% to 29.85% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Before any board card is dealt, AQs holds 70.16% equity against A3s, which leaves A3s with 29.84%. ## AQs against A3s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for AQs against A3s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AQs | 67.390 | 5.530 | 27.080 | 70.155 | | A3s | 27.080 | 5.530 | 67.390 | 29.845 | AQs and A3s are both suited hands. Because the hands share one rank, the one with the higher kicker is ahead when that rank pairs and the other hand is mostly drawing. AQs is the clear favorite, though A3s gets there on roughly one board in 3. Split pots make up 5.53% of the boards, and both equity figures count them as half a win each. The hand ranking puts AQs at 10 and A3s at 38 out of 169 starting hands. **Boards behind the percentages: 20,547,648 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AQs | 13,847,000 | 1,136,000 | 5,564,000 | | A3s | 5,564,000 | 1,136,000 | 13,847,000 | 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. **AQs 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) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AQs | 2.351 | 1.484 | 3.693 | 0.425 | | A3s | 0.425 | 3.693 | 1.484 | 2.351 | 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 AQs prefers rainbow flops topped by a ten or better, where it holds 76.80%, and likes low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) least, where it holds 56.81%. AQs stays ahead on all five textures, but the swing between them is large, so how the flop looks matters a great deal. **AQs against A3s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | AQs wins | Ties | A3s wins | AQs equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 23.867 | 75.040 | 3.517 | 21.443 | 76.799 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 7.042 | 54.653 | 4.308 | 41.039 | 56.807 | | Two-tone | 46.543 | 67.770 | 3.375 | 28.855 | 69.457 | | Monotone | 5.215 | 61.374 | 5.319 | 33.307 | 64.033 | | Paired | 17.333 | 62.823 | 14.647 | 22.530 | 70.146 | Read the flop types this way: rainbow has three suits, two-tone has two cards of one suit, monotone has three, and paired repeats a rank. ## Compared with a random hand Against one random hand instead, AQs holds 66.21% and A3s holds 58.22%. Facing each other changes that by +3.95 points for AQs and -28.38 points for A3s. **AQs 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AQs, all flops | 70.155 | 66.209 | +3.946 | 1.05960 | | AQs, rainbow, ten or higher | 76.799 | 66.209 | +10.590 | 1.15995 | | AQs, rainbow, nine or lower | 56.807 | 66.209 | -9.402 | 0.85800 | | AQs, two-tone | 69.457 | 66.209 | +3.248 | 1.04906 | | AQs, monotone | 64.033 | 66.209 | -2.176 | 0.96713 | | AQs, paired | 70.146 | 66.209 | +3.937 | 1.05946 | | A3s, all flops | 29.845 | 58.220 | -28.375 | 0.51262 | | A3s, rainbow, ten or higher | 23.201 | 58.220 | -35.019 | 0.39851 | | A3s, rainbow, nine or lower | 43.193 | 58.220 | -15.027 | 0.74189 | | A3s, two-tone | 30.543 | 58.220 | -27.677 | 0.52461 | | A3s, monotone | 35.967 | 58.220 | -22.253 | 0.61778 | | A3s, paired | 29.854 | 58.220 | -28.366 | 0.51278 | ## Does a shared suit matter? There is no shared-suit case for this pair, since the cards they would need are already in the other hand. Every deal is a no-shared-suit deal. **AQs against A3s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | AQs wins | Ties | A3s wins | AQs equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 0 | 0.00 | not possible | not possible | not possible | not possible | | No shared suit | 12 | 100.00 | 67.390 | 5.530 | 27.080 | 70.155 | ## How often this matchup comes up You will meet this exact matchup 0.0015% of the time in a random heads-up deal: 24 of 1,624,350, counting either seat order. ## A worked example With $100 from each side, the $200 pot is split on average as $140.32 for AQs and $59.68 for A3s; the first side gains $40.32 per all-in and the second gives up $40.32. Run 1,000 deals and the tally comes out near 674 for AQs, 271 for A3s and 55 ties. ## The same matchup from the other side Swap the hands and you get A3s with 29.84% against AQs with 70.16%. We keep one page per matchup, with the better-ranked hand first. ## Keep exploring Open the calculator with AsQs against Ah3h already entered, a deal with no shared suit, and change any card to try your own hand. The matchups after it each swap one hand for a nearby one in the ranking. - [Open AsQs against Ah3h in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=AsQs&p2=Ah3h) - [AQs combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/aqs.md) - [A3s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a3s.md) - [AQs vs QJo](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aqs-vs-qjo.md) - [AQs vs K9o](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aqs-vs-k9o.md) - [AJs vs A3s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ajs-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 AQs 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 - [AQs vs QJo: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aqs-vs-qjo.md) - [AQs vs K9o: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aqs-vs-k9o.md) - [AJs vs A3s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ajs-vs-a3s.md)