--- title: "KQs vs 87s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqs-vs-87s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqs-vs-87s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "KQs is a big favorite over 87s before the flop: 63.27% to 36.73% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqs-vs-86s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqs-vs-76s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/66-vs-87s.md"] --- # KQs vs 87s: preflop equity KQs is a big favorite over 87s before the flop: 63.27% to 36.73% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. In equity, KQs against 87s stands at 63.27% to 36.73%, a gap of 26.54 points. ## KQs against 87s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for KQs against 87s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | KQs | 62.927 | 0.679 | 36.394 | 63.267 | | 87s | 36.394 | 0.679 | 62.927 | 36.733 | Both hands are suited hands: KQs and 87s. Neither hand shares a rank with the other, so this is a contest of high cards, connection and suits. The lead is steady rather than large, and the flop still has plenty of say in who wins. 0.68% of boards are ties, so the equity of each hand is its win rate plus half of that. By strength against a random hand, KQs holds place 16 of 169 and 87s holds place 100. **Boards behind the percentages: 27,396,864 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | KQs | 17,240,000 | 186,000 | 9,971,000 | | 87s | 9,971,000 | 186,000 | 17,240,000 | 16 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 87s 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 | 1.722 | 1.589 | 2.748 | 0.581 | | 87s | 0.581 | 2.748 | 1.589 | 1.722 | 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 Break the boards down by their first three cards and KQs is strongest on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better (70.42%) and weakest on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) (37.54%). On low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) the numbers flip and 87s is the one ahead. **KQs against 87s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | KQs wins | Ties | 87s wins | KQs equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 24.595 | 70.267 | 0.304 | 29.429 | 70.419 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 6.314 | 37.253 | 0.566 | 62.181 | 37.536 | | Two-tone | 46.727 | 62.541 | 0.328 | 37.131 | 62.705 | | Monotone | 5.273 | 58.706 | 3.463 | 37.831 | 60.438 | | Paired | 17.091 | 64.207 | 1.362 | 34.431 | 64.888 | 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 -0.13 points (baseline 63.40%) and 87s by -11.21 points (baseline 47.94%). **KQs and 87s 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 | 63.267 | 63.400 | -0.133 | 0.99790 | | KQs, rainbow, ten or higher | 70.419 | 63.400 | +7.019 | 1.11071 | | KQs, rainbow, nine or lower | 37.536 | 63.400 | -25.864 | 0.59205 | | KQs, two-tone | 62.705 | 63.400 | -0.695 | 0.98904 | | KQs, monotone | 60.438 | 63.400 | -2.962 | 0.95328 | | KQs, paired | 64.888 | 63.400 | +1.488 | 1.02347 | | 87s, all flops | 36.733 | 47.936 | -11.203 | 0.76629 | | 87s, rainbow, ten or higher | 29.581 | 47.936 | -18.355 | 0.61709 | | 87s, rainbow, nine or lower | 62.464 | 47.936 | +14.528 | 1.30307 | | 87s, two-tone | 37.295 | 47.936 | -10.641 | 0.77802 | | 87s, monotone | 39.562 | 47.936 | -8.374 | 0.82531 | | 87s, paired | 35.112 | 47.936 | -12.824 | 0.73248 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Two kinds of deal exist here. In 4 of them the hands share a suit and KQs holds 65.61%. In 12 they do not, and it holds 62.49%. KQs does better with a shared suit, by 3.12 points. **KQs against 87s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | KQs wins | Ties | 87s wins | KQs equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 4 | 25.00 | 65.224 | 0.768 | 34.008 | 65.608 | | No shared suit | 12 | 75.00 | 62.161 | 0.650 | 37.189 | 62.486 | ## 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 With $100 from each side, the $200 pot is split on average as $126.54 for KQs and $73.46 for 87s; the first side gains $26.54 per all-in and the second gives up $26.54. Per 1,000 deals: KQs wins about 629, 87s wins about 364, and about 7 end in a split pot. ## The same matchup from the other side Swap the hands and you get 87s with 36.73% against KQs with 63.27%. We keep one page per matchup, with the better-ranked hand first. ## Keep exploring The calculator link fills in KsQs against 8h7h, 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 KsQs against 8h7h in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=KsQs&p2=8h7h) - [KQs combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/kqs.md) - [87s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/87s.md) - [KQs vs 86s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqs-vs-86s.md) - [KQs vs 76s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqs-vs-76s.md) - [66 vs 87s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/66-vs-87s.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 - [KQs vs 86s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqs-vs-86s.md) - [KQs vs 76s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqs-vs-76s.md) - [66 vs 87s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/66-vs-87s.md)