AKs vs a 20bb shoving range: Equity & Strategy

Ace-King Suited (AKs) has 59.3% equity all-in preflop against a 20bb shoving range — 164 combos, 12.4% of all starting hands. It wins 55.4% of runouts outright, loses 36.7% and chops 8.0%. These are exact figures from full board enumeration against every unblocked combo in the range, not a simulation.

The range this is computed against

Double the stack, half the range. At twenty big blinds a jam risks far more chips to win the same blinds and antes, so the push collapses to hands that are happy to be called: 55+, the strong suited aces plus the wheel aces, suited broadways and ATo+. Around 12% of hands.

20bb shove — 164 combos, 12.4% of all starting hands: AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT, 99, 88, 77, 66, 55, AKs, AQs, AJs, ATs, A9s, A5s, A4s, KQs, KJs, QJs, JTs, AKo, AQo, AJo, ATo, KQo

After card removal, 131 of those 164 combos are still available (33 are blocked by the cards AKs holds). AKs is ahead of 74 and behind 57.

Hardest parts of the range for AKs

Easiest parts of the range for AKs

AKs has 59.3% equity all-in preflop against a 20bb shoving range — 164 combos, 12.4% of all hands. Ace-King Suited wins the pot outright 55.4% of the time, loses 36.7% and chops 8.0%. Your own two cards remove 33 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 74 of the 131 combos you can still be facing (56%), which is what a 59.3% number actually looks like hand by hand.

Double the stack, half the range. At twenty big blinds a jam risks far more chips to win the same blinds and antes, so the push collapses to hands that are happy to be called: 55+, the strong suited aces plus the wheel aces, suited broadways and ATo+. Around 12% of hands. Inside that range, the combos that hurt AKs most are AA (12.1%), KK (34.1%) and TT (45.9%); the ones you want to see are KQo (75.6%), AQo (75.4%) and AJo (75.1%). Across the whole range AKs's equity swings from 12.1% at the bottom to 75.6% at the top — the single 59.3% headline is the combo-weighted average of all of it.

Calling a shove is a pure equity question — there is no postflop skill left — so 59.3% is the entire decision. Against a typical pot laying you better than 2-to-1 with blinds and antes in the middle, 59.3% is a call.

AKs vs 20bb shove FAQ

What is AKs's equity against a 20bb shoving range?

AKs has 59.3% equity all-in preflop against a 20bb shoving range — it wins 55.4% of runouts outright, loses 36.7% and chops 8.0%. The range holds 164 combos (12.4% of all hands); AKs blocks 33 of them, leaving 131 live. This is exact full board enumeration, not a simulation.

Which hands in a 20bb shoving range beat AKs?

AKs is behind 57 of the 131 live combos and ahead of the other 74. The worst matchups are AA (12.1%), KK (34.1%) and TT (45.9%); its best are KQo (75.6%), AQo (75.4%) and AJo (75.1%). Every figure is exact, computed against that hand's unblocked combos only.

What hands are in a 20bb shoving range?

26 hand classes and 164 combos — 12.4% of the 1,326 possible starting hands. By combo count it is 37% pocket pairs (10 pairs, 60 combos), 27% suited hands (11 classes, 44 combos) and 37% offsuit hands (5 classes, 60 combos). That shape is why AKs runs at 59.3% against it rather than against a random hand.

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

Wider, almost always. AKs has 65.8% equity against a loose-passive calling range (50.5% of hands) but 48.2% 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 · aks vs utg-open · aks vs mp-open · aks vs co-open · aa vs shove-10bb · aa vs shove-20bb · kk vs shove-10bb