AQ vs AJ: who wins the kicker war?

The domination ladder is the same on every rung: shared ace, three-out kicker war, roughly 3-to-1. What this particular rung teaches is range thinking. Ace-queen feels strong when it dominates ace-jack and ace-ten, and feels awful when ace-king appears one rung up, and both feelings are correct. The same hand is a 73% favorite and a 26% underdog in mirror-image spots. Nothing about the cards changed, only what they collided with. That is the whole argument for reading opponents instead of memorizing hand values: the value of a big ace is entirely about who else is betting.

Quick tip: Every big-ace hand is both bully and victim on the same ladder. Count the raises to figure out which one you are right now.

All numbers are all-in preflop equity vs one opponent, computed by the Poker Shark equity engine from the full 169 by 169 hand matrix, weighted across suited and offsuit combos.