AKs vs a UTG opening range: Equity & Strategy

Ace-King Suited (AKs) has 58.3% equity all-in preflop against a UTG opening range — 202 combos, 15.2% of all starting hands. It wins 55.2% of runouts outright, loses 38.7% and chops 6.1%. These are exact figures from full board enumeration against every unblocked combo in the range, not a simulation.

The range this is computed against

Under the gun a competent 6-max regular opens roughly the top 15% of hands: every pocket pair, the suited aces (nut-flush and wheel blockers), suited broadways down to J9s, the strongest suited connectors, and only AJo+ / KQo offsuit — offsuit hands realise their equity badly from the worst seat at the table.

UTG open — 202 combos, 15.2% of all starting hands: AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT, 99, 88, 77, 66, 55, 44, 33, 22, AKs, AQs, AJs, ATs, A9s, A5s, A4s, A3s, KQs, KJs, KTs, QJs, QTs, JTs, J9s, T9s, 98s, 87s, 76s, AKo, AQo, AJo, KQo

After card removal, 170 of those 202 combos are still available (32 are blocked by the cards AKs holds). AKs is ahead of 95 and behind 75.

Hardest parts of the range for AKs

Easiest parts of the range for AKs

AKs has 58.3% equity all-in preflop against a UTG opening range — 202 combos, 15.2% of all hands. Ace-King Suited wins the pot outright 55.2% of the time, loses 38.7% and chops 6.1%. Your own two cards remove 32 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 95 of the 170 combos you can still be facing (56%), which is what a 58.3% number actually looks like hand by hand.

Where does the range come from? Under the gun a competent 6-max regular opens roughly the top 15% of hands: every pocket pair, the suited aces (nut-flush and wheel blockers), suited broadways down to J9s, the strongest suited connectors, and only AJo+ / KQo offsuit — offsuit hands realise their equity badly from the worst seat at the table. Broken down hand by hand, AKs does worst against AA (12.1%), KK (34.1%) and TT (45.9%) and best against 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 58.3% headline is the combo-weighted average of all of it.

The practical read on 58.3% against a UTG opening range: you can 3-bet for value or flat in position, but this is not a stack-off-preflop holding against a 15.2% opener.

AKs vs UTG open FAQ

What is AKs's equity against a UTG opening range?

AKs has 58.3% equity all-in preflop against a UTG opening range — it wins 55.2% of runouts outright, loses 38.7% and chops 6.1%. The range holds 202 combos (15.2% of all hands); AKs blocks 32 of them, leaving 170 live. This is exact full board enumeration, not a simulation.

Which hands in a UTG opening range beat AKs?

AKs is behind 75 of the 170 live combos and ahead of the other 95. 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 UTG opening range?

36 hand classes and 202 combos — 15.2% of the 1,326 possible starting hands. By combo count it is 39% pocket pairs (13 pairs, 78 combos), 38% suited hands (19 classes, 76 combos) and 24% offsuit hands (4 classes, 48 combos). That shape is why AKs runs at 58.3% 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 3bet-value · aks vs 3bet-bluff · aks vs 4bet-range · aa vs utg-open · aa vs mp-open · aa vs co-open