--- title: "ATs vs KQs: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ats-vs-kqs.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ats-vs-kqs" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "Who is ahead, ATs or KQs? ATs leads 59.05% to 40.95% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ats-vs-66.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ats-vs-a9s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aqo-vs-kqs.md"] --- # ATs vs KQs: preflop equity Who is ahead, ATs or KQs? ATs leads 59.05% to 40.95% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Averaged over every possible board, ATs is ahead of KQs by 18.10 points of equity, 59.05% to 40.95%. ## ATs against KQs: the numbers **Exact preflop results for ATs against KQs, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | ATs | 58.795 | 0.514 | 40.691 | 59.052 | | KQs | 40.691 | 0.514 | 58.795 | 40.948 | 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** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | ATs | 16,108,000 | 141,000 | 11,148,000 | | KQs | 11,148,000 | 141,000 | 16,108,000 | 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** | Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | ATs | 1.442 | 1.701 | 2.458 | 0.693 | | KQs | 0.693 | 2.458 | 1.701 | 1.442 | 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** | Flop | Share of flops | ATs wins | Ties | KQs wins | ATs equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 23.138 | 53.373 | 0.108 | 46.519 | 53.427 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 7.771 | 74.157 | 0.960 | 24.883 | 74.637 | | Two-tone | 46.727 | 57.823 | 0.280 | 41.897 | 57.963 | | Monotone | 5.273 | 54.315 | 3.417 | 42.268 | 56.024 | | Paired | 17.091 | 63.189 | 0.604 | 36.207 | 63.491 | 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** | Case | Equity here | Against a random hand | Change in points | Times the random-hand equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | ATs, all flops | 59.052 | 64.602 | -5.550 | 0.91409 | | ATs, rainbow, ten or higher | 53.427 | 64.602 | -11.175 | 0.82702 | | ATs, rainbow, nine or lower | 74.637 | 64.602 | +10.035 | 1.15534 | | ATs, two-tone | 57.963 | 64.602 | -6.639 | 0.89723 | | ATs, monotone | 56.024 | 64.602 | -8.578 | 0.86722 | | ATs, paired | 63.491 | 64.602 | -1.111 | 0.98280 | | KQs, all flops | 40.948 | 63.400 | -22.452 | 0.64587 | | KQs, rainbow, ten or higher | 46.573 | 63.400 | -16.827 | 0.73459 | | KQs, rainbow, nine or lower | 25.363 | 63.400 | -38.037 | 0.40005 | | KQs, two-tone | 42.037 | 63.400 | -21.363 | 0.66304 | | KQs, monotone | 43.976 | 63.400 | -19.424 | 0.69363 | | KQs, paired | 36.509 | 63.400 | -26.891 | 0.57585 | ## 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** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | ATs wins | Ties | KQs wins | ATs equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 4 | 25.00 | 60.875 | 0.593 | 38.532 | 61.171 | | No shared suit | 12 | 75.00 | 58.101 | 0.488 | 41.411 | 58.345 | ## 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%. ## Keep exploring 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. - [Open AsTs against KhQh in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=AsTs&p2=KhQh) - [ATs combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/ats.md) - [KQs combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/kqs.md) - [ATs vs 66](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ats-vs-66.md) - [ATs vs A9s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ats-vs-a9s.md) - [AQo vs KQs](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aqo-vs-kqs.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 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. ## Related - [ATs vs 66: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ats-vs-66.md) - [ATs vs A9s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ats-vs-a9s.md) - [AQo vs KQs: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/aqo-vs-kqs.md)