--- title: "KQs vs 86s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqs-vs-86s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqs-vs-86s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "KQs is a big favorite over 86s before the flop: 62.99% to 37.02% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqs-vs-76s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqs-vs-75s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/66-vs-86s.md"] --- # KQs vs 86s: preflop equity KQs is a big favorite over 86s before the flop: 62.99% to 37.02% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Averaged over every possible board, KQs is ahead of 86s by 25.98 points of equity, 62.99% to 37.01%. ## KQs against 86s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for KQs against 86s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | KQs | 62.651 | 0.669 | 36.680 | 62.985 | | 86s | 36.680 | 0.669 | 62.651 | 37.015 | The matchup is suited hands on both sides, KQs against 86s. With no overlap in ranks, every card that pairs one hand is a card that does not pair the other. KQs is ahead, but 86s is far from dead: it takes 367 of every 1,000 deals outright. Ties are 0.67% of the outcomes here; each tied board gives both hands half the pot. Ranked by equity against a random hand, KQs is number 16 of the 169 starting hands and 86s is number 110. **Boards behind the percentages: 27,396,864 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | KQs | 17,164,000 | 183,000 | 10,049,000 | | 86s | 10,049,000 | 183,000 | 17,164,000 | The board total is exact, 16 deals at 1,712,304 boards each. Won, tied and lost counts are rounded to the nearest thousand from the five-decimal percentages. **KQs against 86s read as odds** | Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | KQs | 1.702 | 1.596 | 2.726 | 0.588 | | 86s | 0.588 | 2.726 | 1.596 | 1.702 | 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 Break the boards down by their first three cards and KQs is strongest on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better (70.23%) and weakest on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) (36.47%). Watch for low rainbow flops (nine high or lower): on those flops 86s holds the better equity. **KQs against 86s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | KQs wins | Ties | 86s wins | KQs equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 24.595 | 70.102 | 0.254 | 29.644 | 70.229 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 6.314 | 36.128 | 0.684 | 63.188 | 36.470 | | Two-tone | 46.727 | 62.231 | 0.317 | 37.452 | 62.390 | | Monotone | 5.273 | 58.489 | 3.459 | 38.052 | 60.219 | | Paired | 17.091 | 64.156 | 1.366 | 34.478 | 64.839 | 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 The table below sets each hand against its own random-hand baseline: a change of -0.41 points for KQs, from 63.40%, and -9.23 for 86s, from 46.24%. **KQs and 86s 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | KQs, all flops | 62.985 | 63.400 | -0.415 | 0.99345 | | KQs, rainbow, ten or higher | 70.229 | 63.400 | +6.829 | 1.10771 | | KQs, rainbow, nine or lower | 36.470 | 63.400 | -26.930 | 0.57524 | | KQs, two-tone | 62.390 | 63.400 | -1.010 | 0.98407 | | KQs, monotone | 60.219 | 63.400 | -3.181 | 0.94983 | | KQs, paired | 64.839 | 63.400 | +1.439 | 1.02270 | | 86s, all flops | 37.015 | 46.243 | -9.228 | 0.80045 | | 86s, rainbow, ten or higher | 29.771 | 46.243 | -16.472 | 0.64379 | | 86s, rainbow, nine or lower | 63.530 | 46.243 | +17.287 | 1.37383 | | 86s, two-tone | 37.610 | 46.243 | -8.633 | 0.81331 | | 86s, monotone | 39.781 | 46.243 | -6.462 | 0.86026 | | 86s, paired | 35.161 | 46.243 | -11.082 | 0.76035 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Looking only at deals where the hands share a suit, KQs has 65.30%; looking only at deals where they do not, 62.22%. KQs does better with a shared suit, by 3.08 points. **KQs against 86s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | KQs wins | Ties | 86s wins | KQs equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 4 | 25.00 | 64.920 | 0.757 | 34.323 | 65.298 | | No shared suit | 12 | 75.00 | 61.895 | 0.640 | 37.465 | 62.215 | ## How often this matchup comes up You will meet this exact matchup 0.0020% of the time in a random heads-up deal: 32 of 1,624,350, counting either seat order. ## A worked example Say each player puts $100 in before the flop, making a $200 pot. On average KQs takes back $125.98 of it, which is $25.98 more than it put in, and 86s takes back $74.02, $25.98 less than it put in. Over a long run, 1,000 deals split into about 626 for KQs, 367 for 86s and 7 tied. ## The same matchup from the other side 86s against KQs adds nothing new: it is 37.01% for 86s and 62.99% for KQs, the same figures reversed. ## Keep exploring KsQs against 8h6h is a ready-made deal for the calculator, with no suit in common between the hands. The neighboring matchups below replace one hand with another of similar strength. - [Open KsQs against 8h6h in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=KsQs&p2=8h6h) - [KQs combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/kqs.md) - [86s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/86s.md) - [KQs vs 76s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqs-vs-76s.md) - [KQs vs 75s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqs-vs-75s.md) - [66 vs 86s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/66-vs-86s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed The page is built from a full enumeration: 1,712,304 boards, every suit pattern of the 16 specific deals, both seven-card hands evaluated. A tie is worth half a win to each hand, and a board is tallied under each of its ten possible flops for the texture rows. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [KQs vs 76s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqs-vs-76s.md) - [KQs vs 75s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqs-vs-75s.md) - [66 vs 86s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/66-vs-86s.md)