AA vs a 4-betting range: Equity & Strategy

Pocket Aces (AA) has 84.5% equity all-in preflop against a 4-betting range — 42 combos, 3.2% of all starting hands. It wins 82.2% of runouts outright, loses 13.1% and chops 4.7%. These are exact figures from full board enumeration against every unblocked combo in the range, not a simulation.

The range this is computed against

Four-betting is the tightest voluntary action in preflop poker. The standard construction is QQ+ and AK for value plus a token pair of blocker bluffs — A5s and A4s, which remove combos of AA and AK from the opponent's continuing range and still flop wheel and nut-flush draws when called. About 3% of hands.

4-bet — 42 combos, 3.2% of all starting hands: AA, KK, QQ, AKs, A5s, A4s, AKo

After card removal, 25 of those 42 combos are still available (17 are blocked by the cards AA holds). AA is ahead of 24 and behind 1.

Hardest parts of the range for AA

Easiest parts of the range for AA

Against a 4-betting range (42 combos, 3.2% of all hands), AA runs at 84.5%. It wins 82.2% of runouts outright, loses 13.1% and splits the remaining 4.7%. Your own two cards remove 17 of those combos before the flop is even dealt — a blocker effect this number already accounts for, because every combo containing one of your exact cards is stripped out of the range first. You are ahead of 24 of the 25 combos you can still be facing (96%), which is what a 84.5% number actually looks like hand by hand.

Where does the range come from? Four-betting is the tightest voluntary action in preflop poker. The standard construction is QQ+ and AK for value plus a token pair of blocker bluffs — A5s and A4s, which remove combos of AA and AK from the opponent's continuing range and still flop wheel and nut-flush draws when called. About 3% of hands. Broken down hand by hand, AA does worst against AA (50.0%), QQ (81.5%) and KK (81.9%) and best against AKo (93.2%), AKs (87.9%) and A4s (87.1%). Across the whole range AA's equity swings from 50.0% at the bottom to 93.2% at the top — the single 84.5% headline is the combo-weighted average of all of it.

A 4-bet is the tightest action in preflop poker, and 84.5% reflects that: AA is genuinely ahead of even this range, which is the definition of a hand you never fold preflop. There is no flat-and-outplay-them line against 3.2% of hands with the stacks a 4-bet creates.

AA vs 4-bet FAQ

What is AA's equity against a 4-betting range?

AA has 84.5% equity all-in preflop against a 4-betting range — it wins 82.2% of runouts outright, loses 13.1% and chops 4.7%. The range holds 42 combos (3.2% of all hands); AA blocks 17 of them, leaving 25 live. This is exact full board enumeration, not a simulation.

Which hands in a 4-betting range beat AA?

AA is behind 1 of the 25 live combos and ahead of the other 24. The worst matchups are AA (50.0%), QQ (81.5%) and KK (81.9%); its best are AKo (93.2%), AKs (87.9%) and A4s (87.1%). Every figure is exact, computed against that hand's unblocked combos only.

What hands are in a 4-betting range?

7 hand classes and 42 combos — 3.2% of the 1,326 possible starting hands. By combo count it is 43% pocket pairs (3 pairs, 18 combos), 29% suited hands (3 classes, 12 combos) and 29% offsuit hands (1 classes, 12 combos). That shape is why AA runs at 84.5% against it rather than against a random hand.

Does AA do better against a wider or a tighter range?

Wider, almost always. AA has 84.3% equity against a loose-passive calling range (50.5% of hands) but 84.5% against a 4-betting range (3.2%). Equity against a range is mostly a question of how many weak hands the range still contains — which is why the same holding can be a monster against a button open and a fold against a 4-bet.

Run any hand vs range in the free equity calculator · All hand-vs-range matchups · aa vs utg-open · aa vs mp-open · aa vs co-open · kk vs 4bet-range · qq vs 4bet-range · jj vs 4bet-range