--- title: "AQs vs A8s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aqs-vs-a8s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aqs-vs-a8s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "AQs is a big favorite over A8s before the flop: 70.41% to 29.59% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aqs-vs-kts.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aqs-vs-kqo.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ajs-vs-a8s.md"] --- # AQs vs A8s: preflop equity AQs is a big favorite over A8s before the flop: 70.41% to 29.59% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. In equity, AQs against A8s stands at 70.41% to 29.59%, a gap of 40.82 points. ## AQs against A8s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for AQs against A8s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AQs | 67.733 | 5.350 | 26.917 | 70.408 | | A8s | 26.917 | 5.350 | 67.733 | 29.592 | AQs and A8s are both suited hands. 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. That is a clear edge, 70.41% to 29.59%, but A8s still wins often enough that one hand proves nothing. About 5.35% of boards chop the pot, which is why equity sits slightly above the win figure for both hands. The hand ranking puts AQs at 10 and A8s at 21 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 | 13,918,000 | 1,099,000 | 5,531,000 | | A8s | 5,531,000 | 1,099,000 | 13,918,000 | Exact total: 12 deals times 1,712,304 boards. The other three counts come from the five-decimal percentages and are rounded to the nearest thousand, so read them as approximate. **AQs 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) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AQs | 2.379 | 1.476 | 3.715 | 0.420 | | A8s | 0.420 | 3.715 | 1.476 | 2.379 | In the last column, a pot-to-call ratio at or above the figure makes a call break even or better at this equity. ## Who is ahead on which flops By flop texture, AQs' equity runs from 58.61% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) up to 76.85% on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better. 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 A8s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | AQs wins | Ties | A8s wins | AQs equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 23.867 | 75.128 | 3.439 | 21.433 | 76.848 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 7.042 | 56.509 | 4.200 | 39.291 | 58.609 | | Two-tone | 46.543 | 68.153 | 3.279 | 28.568 | 69.793 | | Monotone | 5.215 | 61.542 | 5.210 | 33.248 | 64.147 | | Paired | 17.333 | 62.845 | 14.051 | 23.104 | 69.870 | 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 Each hand has a baseline against a random hand: 66.21% for AQs, 61.94% for A8s. Here the change is +4.20 and -32.35 points. **AQs 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AQs, all flops | 70.408 | 66.209 | +4.199 | 1.06342 | | AQs, rainbow, ten or higher | 76.848 | 66.209 | +10.639 | 1.16069 | | AQs, rainbow, nine or lower | 58.609 | 66.209 | -7.600 | 0.88521 | | AQs, two-tone | 69.793 | 66.209 | +3.584 | 1.05413 | | AQs, monotone | 64.147 | 66.209 | -2.062 | 0.96886 | | AQs, paired | 69.870 | 66.209 | +3.661 | 1.05529 | | A8s, all flops | 29.592 | 61.944 | -32.352 | 0.47772 | | A8s, rainbow, ten or higher | 23.152 | 61.944 | -38.792 | 0.37376 | | A8s, rainbow, nine or lower | 41.391 | 61.944 | -20.553 | 0.66820 | | A8s, two-tone | 30.207 | 61.944 | -31.737 | 0.48765 | | A8s, monotone | 35.853 | 61.944 | -26.091 | 0.57880 | | A8s, paired | 30.130 | 61.944 | -31.814 | 0.48641 | ## Does a shared suit matter? The hands cannot hold a suit in common here, which leaves a single case and a single number: 70.41% for AQs. **AQs against A8s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | AQs wins | Ties | A8s wins | AQs equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 0 | 0.00 | not possible | not possible | not possible | not possible | | No shared suit | 12 | 100.00 | 67.733 | 5.350 | 26.917 | 70.408 | ## How often this matchup comes up AQs against A8s 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 To see what the equity is worth, imagine $100 each in a $200 pot. AQs is worth $140.82 on average (+$40.82); A8s is worth $59.18 (-$40.82). Out of 1,000 deals you should see around 677 outright wins for AQs, 269 for A8s, and 54 split pots. ## The same matchup from the other side If you came looking for A8s against AQs, the numbers are the same with the hands swapped: 29.59% and 70.41%. ## Keep exploring Open the calculator with AsQs against Ah8h 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 Ah8h in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=AsQs&p2=Ah8h) - [AQs combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/aqs.md) - [A8s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a8s.md) - [AQs vs KTs](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aqs-vs-kts.md) - [AQs vs KQo](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aqs-vs-kqo.md) - [AJs vs A8s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ajs-vs-a8s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed Nothing here is simulated. The 12 deals of AQs against A8s fall into a few suit patterns, each dealt against all 1,712,304 boards, with both best five-card hands compared on every board. Ties give each hand half a win, and the flop rows count a board under each of its ten flops. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [AQs vs KTs: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aqs-vs-kts.md) - [AQs vs KQo: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aqs-vs-kqo.md) - [AJs vs A8s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ajs-vs-a8s.md)