--- title: "KQs vs A5s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqs-vs-a5s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqs-vs-a5s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "Who is ahead, KQs or A5s? A5s leads 57.47% to 42.53% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqs-vs-a6s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqs-vs-kto.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/66-vs-a5s.md"] --- # KQs vs A5s: preflop equity Who is ahead, KQs or A5s? A5s leads 57.47% to 42.53% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. The exact count puts A5s at 57.47% and KQs at 42.53% when the two hands see all five board cards. ## KQs against A5s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for KQs against A5s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | KQs | 42.262 | 0.531 | 57.207 | 42.527 | | A5s | 57.207 | 0.531 | 42.262 | 57.473 | Both hands are suited hands: KQs and A5s. With no overlap in ranks, every card that pairs one hand is a card that does not pair the other. The lead is steady rather than large, and the flop still has plenty of say in who wins. A split pot comes up on 0.53% of boards, so the wins and the equity differ by half of that. Ranked by equity against a random hand, KQs is number 16 of the 169 starting hands and A5s is number 30. **Boards behind the percentages: 27,396,864 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | KQs | 11,578,000 | 145,000 | 15,673,000 | | A5s | 15,673,000 | 145,000 | 11,578,000 | 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. **KQs against A5s 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 | 0.740 | 2.366 | 1.748 | 1.351 | | A5s | 1.351 | 1.748 | 2.366 | 0.740 | In the last column, a pot-to-call ratio at or above the figure makes a call break even or better at this equity. ## Who is ahead on which flops Break the boards down by their first three cards and A5s is strongest on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) (75.94%) and weakest on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better (51.27%). A5s stays ahead on all five textures, but the swing between them is large, so how the flop looks matters a great deal. **KQs against A5s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | KQs wins | Ties | A5s wins | KQs equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 23.867 | 48.669 | 0.117 | 51.214 | 48.728 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 7.042 | 23.527 | 1.077 | 75.396 | 24.065 | | Two-tone | 46.727 | 43.525 | 0.298 | 56.177 | 43.674 | | Monotone | 5.273 | 43.460 | 3.442 | 53.098 | 45.181 | | Paired | 17.091 | 37.210 | 0.624 | 62.166 | 37.522 | Flop types: rainbow means three different suits, two-tone means one suit twice, monotone means one suit three times, paired means a repeated rank. ## Compared with a random hand Relative to a random opponent, KQs changes by -20.87 points (baseline 63.40%) and A5s by -2.45 points (baseline 59.92%). **KQs and A5s 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 | 42.527 | 63.400 | -20.873 | 0.67077 | | KQs, rainbow, ten or higher | 48.728 | 63.400 | -14.672 | 0.76858 | | KQs, rainbow, nine or lower | 24.065 | 63.400 | -39.335 | 0.37957 | | KQs, two-tone | 43.674 | 63.400 | -19.726 | 0.68886 | | KQs, monotone | 45.181 | 63.400 | -18.219 | 0.71263 | | KQs, paired | 37.522 | 63.400 | -25.878 | 0.59183 | | A5s, all flops | 57.473 | 59.923 | -2.450 | 0.95911 | | A5s, rainbow, ten or higher | 51.272 | 59.923 | -8.651 | 0.85563 | | A5s, rainbow, nine or lower | 75.935 | 59.923 | +16.012 | 1.26721 | | A5s, two-tone | 56.326 | 59.923 | -3.597 | 0.93997 | | A5s, monotone | 54.819 | 59.923 | -5.104 | 0.91482 | | A5s, paired | 62.478 | 59.923 | +2.555 | 1.04264 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Suit overlap shows up in the numbers. With a suit in common A5s has 59.41% equity, and with none in common it has 56.83%. A5s does better with a shared suit, by 2.58 points. **KQs against A5s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | KQs wins | Ties | A5s wins | KQs equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 4 | 25.00 | 40.279 | 0.613 | 59.108 | 40.586 | | No shared suit | 12 | 75.00 | 42.922 | 0.504 | 56.574 | 43.174 | ## How often this matchup comes up Exactly 16 specific deals fit this matchup in one seat order, which is 0.0010% of 1,624,350; both orders together give 32, or 0.0020%. ## A worked example Take a $200 pot built from $100 each. A5s' equity of 57.47% is worth $114.94, a $14.94 edge, and KQs' 42.53% is worth $85.06, which is $14.94 under its stake. Per 1,000 deals: A5s wins about 572, KQs wins about 423, and about 5 end in a split pot. ## The same matchup from the other side A5s versus KQs is this same page seen from the other hand: 57.47% for A5s, 42.53% for KQs. ## Keep exploring KsQs against Ah5h 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 Ah5h in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=KsQs&p2=Ah5h) - [KQs combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/kqs.md) - [A5s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a5s.md) - [KQs vs A6s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqs-vs-a6s.md) - [KQs vs KTo](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqs-vs-kto.md) - [66 vs A5s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/66-vs-a5s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed Method: exact enumeration. The 16 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. ## Related - [KQs vs A6s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqs-vs-a6s.md) - [KQs vs KTo: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqs-vs-kto.md) - [66 vs A5s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/66-vs-a5s.md)