ATs vs KQs: preflop equity

Averaged over every possible board, ATs is ahead of KQs by 18.10 points of equity, 59.05% to 40.95%.

ATs

59.05%

Wins 58.80%, ties 0.51%

KQs

40.95%

Wins 40.69%, ties 0.51%

Equity counts a tie as half a win. Exact over every board.

ATs against KQs: the numbers

Exact preflop results for ATs against KQs, in percent
HandWinsTiesLosesEquity
ATs58.7950.51440.69159.052
KQs40.6910.51458.79540.948

This is a contest between two suited hands, ATs and KQs. Neither hand shares a rank with the other, so this is a contest of high cards, connection and suits.

ATs is ahead, but KQs is far from dead: it takes 407 of every 1,000 deals outright. Of every 100 boards, about 0.51 are split pots, and the equity figures already include them.

In the ranking of all 169 starting hands, ATs is number 13 and KQs is number 16.

Boards behind the percentages: 27,396,864 counted in all
HandBoards won, aboutBoards tied, aboutBoards lost, about
ATs16,108,000141,00011,148,000
KQs11,148,000141,00016,108,000

Exact total: 16 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.

ATs against KQs read as odds
HandEquity as odds (to 1)Wins one deal inLoses one deal inPot odds needed to call (to 1)
ATs1.4421.7012.4580.693
KQs0.6932.4581.7011.442

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

Split by what the flop looks like, ATs peaks at 74.64% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) and bottoms out at 53.43% on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better. ATs stays ahead on all five textures, but the swing between them is large, so how the flop looks matters a great deal.

ATs against KQs by flop texture, in percent
FlopShare of flopsATs winsTiesKQs winsATs equity
Rainbow, ten or higher23.13853.3730.10846.51953.427
Rainbow, nine or lower7.77174.1570.96024.88374.637
Two-tone46.72757.8230.28041.89757.963
Monotone5.27354.3153.41742.26856.024
Paired17.09163.1890.60436.20763.491

A rainbow flop shows three suits, a two-tone flop repeats one suit, a monotone flop is a single suit, and a paired flop repeats a rank.

Compared with a random hand

Relative to a random opponent, ATs changes by -5.55 points (baseline 64.60%) and KQs by -22.45 points (baseline 63.40%).

ATs and KQs here compared with each against a random hand, in percent
CaseEquity hereAgainst a random handChange in pointsTimes the random-hand equity
ATs, all flops59.05264.602-5.5500.91409
ATs, rainbow, ten or higher53.42764.602-11.1750.82702
ATs, rainbow, nine or lower74.63764.602+10.0351.15534
ATs, two-tone57.96364.602-6.6390.89723
ATs, monotone56.02464.602-8.5780.86722
ATs, paired63.49164.602-1.1110.98280
KQs, all flops40.94863.400-22.4520.64587
KQs, rainbow, ten or higher46.57363.400-16.8270.73459
KQs, rainbow, nine or lower25.36363.400-38.0370.40005
KQs, two-tone42.03763.400-21.3630.66304
KQs, monotone43.97663.400-19.4240.69363
KQs, paired36.50963.400-26.8910.57585

Does a shared suit matter?

Looking only at deals where the hands share a suit, ATs has 61.17%; looking only at deals where they do not, 58.35%. ATs does better with a shared suit, by 2.82 points.

ATs against KQs by suit overlap, in percent
DealsSpecific dealsShare of dealsATs winsTiesKQs winsATs equity
Share a suit425.0060.8750.59338.53261.171
No shared suit1275.0058.1010.48841.41158.345

How often this matchup comes up

Out of 1,624,350 ways to deal two seats two cards each, 16 are ATs in one seat and KQs in the other (0.0010%); with the seats swapped too, 32 (0.0020%).

A worked example

To see what the equity is worth, imagine $100 each in a $200 pot. ATs is worth $118.10 on average (+$18.10); KQs is worth $81.90 (-$18.10).

Over a long run, 1,000 deals split into about 588 for ATs, 407 for KQs and 5 tied.

The same matchup from the other side

One page covers both views. From KQs' side the equity is 40.95%, and from ATs' side it is 59.05%.

The calculator link fills in AsTs against KhQh, a deal where the two hands share no suit. Change any card to test your own hand. The neighboring matchups below swap one of the two hands for one of similar strength.

How this was computed

The figures are counted, not estimated: 1,712,304 boards for every suit pattern of the 16 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