KQs vs 22: preflop equity

If KQs and 22 get all the chips in before the flop, KQs owns 51.26% of the pot in the long run and 22 owns 48.74%.

KQs

51.26%

Wins 50.80%, ties 0.91%

22

48.74%

Wins 48.29%, ties 0.91%

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

KQs against 22: the numbers

Exact preflop results for KQs against 22, in percent
HandWinsTiesLosesEquity
KQs50.8010.91448.28551.258
2248.2850.91450.80148.742

One side is a suited hand, the other is a pocket pair. This is a pair against two overcards, a matchup that stays close because the other hand only needs one of its ranks to appear.

That is a slim edge: neither hand is far ahead. Split pots make up 0.91% of the boards, and both equity figures count them as half a win each.

KQs ranks number 16 of 169 starting hands, and 22 ranks number 87, by equity against a random hand.

Boards behind the percentages: 41,095,296 counted in all
HandBoards won, aboutBoards tied, aboutBoards lost, about
KQs20,877,000376,00019,843,000
2219,843,000376,00020,877,000

24 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.

KQs against 22 read as odds
HandEquity as odds (to 1)Wins one deal inLoses one deal inPot odds needed to call (to 1)
KQs1.0521.9682.0710.951
220.9512.0711.9681.052

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

Split by what the flop looks like, KQs peaks at 56.56% on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better and bottoms out at 24.28% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower). On low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) the numbers flip and 22 is the one ahead.

KQs against 22 by flop texture, in percent
FlopShare of flopsKQs winsTies22 winsKQs equity
Rainbow, ten or higher24.59556.3810.35143.26856.557
Rainbow, nine or lower6.31423.5891.38875.02324.283
Two-tone46.54551.7800.52047.70052.040
Monotone5.21249.0653.85447.08150.992
Paired17.33450.6911.71347.59651.547

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

Relative to a random opponent, KQs changes by -12.14 points (baseline 63.40%) and 22 by -1.59 points (baseline 50.33%).

KQs and 22 here compared with each against a random hand, in percent
CaseEquity hereAgainst a random handChange in pointsTimes the random-hand equity
KQs, all flops51.25863.400-12.1420.80849
KQs, rainbow, ten or higher56.55763.400-6.8430.89207
KQs, rainbow, nine or lower24.28363.400-39.1170.38301
KQs, two-tone52.04063.400-11.3600.82082
KQs, monotone50.99263.400-12.4080.80429
KQs, paired51.54763.400-11.8530.81304
22, all flops48.74250.334-1.5920.96837
22, rainbow, ten or higher43.44350.334-6.8910.86309
22, rainbow, nine or lower75.71750.334+25.3831.50429
22, two-tone47.96050.334-2.3740.95284
22, monotone49.00850.334-1.3260.97366
22, paired48.45350.334-1.8810.96263

Does a shared suit matter?

Two kinds of deal exist here. In 12 of them the hands share a suit and KQs holds 51.08%. In 12 they do not, and it holds 51.44%. KQs does better with no shared suit, by 0.36 points.

KQs against 22 by suit overlap, in percent
DealsSpecific dealsShare of dealsKQs winsTies22 winsKQs equity
Share a suit1250.0050.6110.93448.45551.078
No shared suit1250.0050.9920.89348.11551.439

How often this matchup comes up

You will meet this exact matchup 0.0030% of the time in a random heads-up deal: 48 of 1,624,350, counting either seat order.

A worked example

To see what the equity is worth, imagine $100 each in a $200 pot. KQs is worth $102.52 on average (+$2.52); 22 is worth $97.48 (-$2.52).

Think in thousands: about 508 of 1,000 go to KQs, about 483 go to 22, and about 9 are chopped.

The same matchup from the other side

If you came looking for 22 against KQs, the numbers are the same with the hands swapped: 48.74% and 51.26%.

Open the calculator with KsQs against 2h2d 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.

How this was computed

Method: exact enumeration. The 24 specific deals are grouped by suit pattern, each is run against all 1,712,304 boards, and both seven-card hands are scored. Equity adds half of every tie, and flop textures are tallied over the ten flops inside each board.

Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used.

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