AK vs KQ: how dominated is king-queen?

Ace-king beats king-queen about 74% of the time when the money goes in preflop.

73.9%

AK

vs

26.1%

KQ

Favorite

AK · 73.9%

Underdog

KQ · 26.1%

Odds

~2.8-to-1

Matchup type

Domination spots

By suits

AKs vs KQs: 71.4%AKs vs KQo: 75.6%AKo vs KQs: 70.4%AKo vs KQo: 74.8%

Same disease, different shared card. Here the king is the hostage: every king-high flop gives both players top pair with the ace-king ahead for good, and the king-queen is drawing at three queens. King-queen even loses the ace runouts, since any ace pairs the ace-king directly. What rescues king-queen in real games is that it dominates the hands below it, king-jack, queen-jack, king-ten, and plays beautifully in single-raised pots. The skill is knowing which pot you are in. In a raised pot king-queen is a workhorse; in a re-raised pot it is the one being led to the fields.

Quick tip: King-queen suited is a great hand until the third raise goes in. That raise is the signal the workhorse became the underdog.

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.