KQs vs a 4-betting range: Equity & Strategy

King-Queen Suited (KQs) has 29.5% equity all-in preflop against a 4-betting range — 42 combos, 3.2% of all starting hands. It wins 29.0% of runouts outright, loses 70.1% and chops 0.9%. 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, 32 of those 42 combos are still available (10 are blocked by the cards KQs holds). KQs is ahead of 0 and behind 32.

Hardest parts of the range for KQs

Easiest parts of the range for KQs

Put KQs up against a 4-betting range — 42 combos, 3.2% of all hands — and the exact answer is 29.5% equity: 29.0% outright wins, 70.1% losses and 0.9% chops. Your own two cards remove 10 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. There is not one combo in the range that KQs is a favourite against: all 32 live combos are in front of it. A range-average of 29.5% here is not an average of good spots and bad ones — every spot is a bad one.

The range behind this number is not a guess. 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. KQs's worst spots in it are KK (13.9%), AA (17.1%) and AKs (28.6%) — and its best are A4s (42.6%), A5s (42.5%) and QQ (35.3%). Across the whole range KQs's equity swings from 13.9% at the bottom to 42.6% at the top — the single 29.5% headline is the combo-weighted average of all of it.

Against a 4-betting range, KQs runs at 29.5%. 29.5% against a 3.2% range is what "dominated" looks like as a number. Folding here costs you nothing you were going to win.

KQs vs 4-bet FAQ

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

KQs has 29.5% equity all-in preflop against a 4-betting range — it wins 29.0% of runouts outright, loses 70.1% and chops 0.9%. The range holds 42 combos (3.2% of all hands); KQs blocks 10 of them, leaving 32 live. This is exact full board enumeration, not a simulation.

Which hands in a 4-betting range beat KQs?

All of them — KQs is behind every one of the 32 live combos. The worst are KK (13.9%), AA (17.1%) and AKs (28.6%), and the closest it gets is A4s (42.6%), A5s (42.5%) and QQ (35.3%). 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 KQs runs at 29.5% against it rather than against a random hand.

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

Wider, almost always. KQs has 57.5% equity against a loose-passive calling range (50.5% of hands) but 29.5% 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 · kqs vs utg-open · kqs vs mp-open · kqs vs co-open · aa vs 4bet-range · kk vs 4bet-range · qq vs 4bet-range