--- title: "QTs vs A3s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qts-vs-a3s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qts-vs-a3s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "Who is ahead, QTs or A3s? A3s leads 55.55% to 44.45% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qts-vs-qjo.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qts-vs-k9o.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a4s-vs-a3s.md"] --- # QTs vs A3s: preflop equity Who is ahead, QTs or A3s? A3s leads 55.55% to 44.45% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Before any board card is dealt, A3s holds 55.55% equity against QTs, which leaves QTs with 44.45%. ## QTs against A3s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for QTs against A3s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | QTs | 44.188 | 0.526 | 55.286 | 44.451 | | A3s | 55.286 | 0.526 | 44.188 | 55.549 | Here suited hands face each other, QTs on one side and A3s on the other. 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. Ties are part of the picture: 0.53% of boards end in a split pot, and each side counts that as half a win. For context, QTs sits at number 34 of 169 starting hands and A3s at number 38 when each is run against a random hand. **Boards behind the percentages: 27,396,864 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | QTs | 12,106,000 | 144,000 | 15,147,000 | | A3s | 15,147,000 | 144,000 | 12,106,000 | 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. **QTs against A3s read as odds** | Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | QTs | 0.800 | 2.263 | 1.809 | 1.250 | | A3s | 1.250 | 1.809 | 2.263 | 0.800 | 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 A3s is strongest on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) (71.93%) and weakest on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better (49.46%). QTs takes over on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better, so the favorite before the flop is the underdog on those boards. **QTs against A3s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | QTs wins | Ties | A3s wins | QTs equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 23.867 | 50.467 | 0.152 | 49.381 | 50.543 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 7.042 | 27.617 | 0.898 | 71.485 | 28.066 | | Two-tone | 46.727 | 45.547 | 0.288 | 54.165 | 45.691 | | Monotone | 5.273 | 44.925 | 3.438 | 51.637 | 46.644 | | Paired | 17.091 | 38.305 | 0.645 | 61.050 | 38.627 | 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 Compared with a random opponent, this matchup shifts QTs from 59.47% by -15.02 points and A3s from 58.22% by -2.67 points. **QTs and A3s 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | QTs, all flops | 44.451 | 59.468 | -15.017 | 0.74748 | | QTs, rainbow, ten or higher | 50.543 | 59.468 | -8.925 | 0.84992 | | QTs, rainbow, nine or lower | 28.066 | 59.468 | -31.402 | 0.47195 | | QTs, two-tone | 45.691 | 59.468 | -13.777 | 0.76833 | | QTs, monotone | 46.644 | 59.468 | -12.824 | 0.78435 | | QTs, paired | 38.627 | 59.468 | -20.841 | 0.64954 | | A3s, all flops | 55.549 | 58.220 | -2.671 | 0.95412 | | A3s, rainbow, ten or higher | 49.457 | 58.220 | -8.763 | 0.84948 | | A3s, rainbow, nine or lower | 71.934 | 58.220 | +13.714 | 1.23555 | | A3s, two-tone | 54.309 | 58.220 | -3.911 | 0.93282 | | A3s, monotone | 53.356 | 58.220 | -4.864 | 0.91645 | | A3s, paired | 61.373 | 58.220 | +3.153 | 1.05416 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Suit overlap shows up in the numbers. With a suit in common A3s has 57.27% equity, and with none in common it has 54.98%. A3s does better with a shared suit, by 2.29 points. **QTs against A3s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | QTs wins | Ties | A3s wins | QTs equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 4 | 25.00 | 42.425 | 0.607 | 56.968 | 42.728 | | No shared suit | 12 | 75.00 | 44.775 | 0.499 | 54.726 | 45.025 | ## How often this matchup comes up Counting specific cards, QTs against A3s appears in 16 of the 1,624,350 ordered heads-up deals (0.0010%), and in 32 when the seats are swapped too (0.0020%). ## A worked example Put $100 each into a $200 pot and deal every board once: A3s averages $111.10 back, ahead of its $100 by $11.10, while QTs averages $88.90, short of its $100 by $11.10. Run 1,000 deals and the tally comes out near 553 for A3s, 442 for QTs and 5 ties. ## The same matchup from the other side A3s versus QTs is this same page seen from the other hand: 55.55% for A3s, 44.45% for QTs. ## Keep exploring QsTs against Ah3h 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 QsTs against Ah3h in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=QsTs&p2=Ah3h) - [QTs combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/qts.md) - [A3s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a3s.md) - [QTs vs QJo](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qts-vs-qjo.md) - [QTs vs K9o](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qts-vs-k9o.md) - [A4s vs A3s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a4s-vs-a3s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed Nothing here is simulated. The 16 deals of QTs against A3s fall into a few suit patterns, each dealt against all 1,712,304 boards, with both best five-card hands compared on every board. Ties give each hand half a win, and the flop rows count a board under each of its ten flops. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [QTs vs QJo: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qts-vs-qjo.md) - [QTs vs K9o: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qts-vs-k9o.md) - [A4s vs A3s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a4s-vs-a3s.md)