Poker Equity & OddsPocket aces odds against multiple players
Short answer
Pocket aces have 85.2% equity against one random hand, counted exactly. Against two random hands it is 73.4% ±0.1, against four 55.8% ±0.1, and against eight, a full table that all sees the river, 34.6% ±0.1. So from five opponents on, aces win less than half the time, but they still get about 3 times an average hand's share. The multiway rows are the Poker Equity & Odds engine's Monte Carlo with 1,000,000 deals each, so they carry a margin.
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AA, KK, AK and two smaller hands against 1 to 8 players
Everybody in? Great, I have aces.
| Opponents | AA | KK | AK offsuit | QJ suited | 55 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (exact) | 85.2% | 82.4% | 65.3% | 60.3% | 60.3% |
| 2 | 73.4% ±0.1 | 69.0% ±0.1 | 48.1% ±0.1 | 44.1% ±0.1 | 40.1% ±0.1 |
| 3 | 63.8% ±0.1 | 58.3% ±0.1 | 38.6% ±0.1 | 35.6% ±0.1 | 28.9% ±0.1 |
| 4 | 55.8% ±0.1 | 49.7% ±0.1 | 32.2% ±0.1 | 30.2% ±0.1 | 22.5% ±0.1 |
| 5 | 49.2% ±0.1 | 42.9% ±0.1 | 27.8% ±0.1 | 26.2% ±0.1 | 18.5% ±0.1 |
| 6 | 43.6% ±0.1 | 37.4% ±0.1 | 24.5% ±0.1 | 23.1% ±0.1 | 16.0% ±0.1 |
| 7 | 38.6% ±0.1 | 32.9% ±0.1 | 21.6% ±0.1 | 20.8% ±0.1 | 14.4% ±0.1 |
| 8 | 34.6% ±0.1 | 29.2% ±0.1 | 19.3% ±0.1 | 18.8% ±0.1 | 13.3% ±0.1 |
Each extra player is one more hand that can beat you, so every column falls. Going from one opponent to two costs AA 11.8 points and KK 13.4. The drops get smaller as the table fills, but measured against what the hand had, kings lose a bigger share than aces at every step, because every extra hand is another chance someone holds an ace.
Against your fair share
Raw equity always falls when players join, so it is a poor way to compare. A fairer test: an average hand at a table of N players gets 1/N of the pot. Divide by that and you see which hands actually like company.
| Opponents | Fair share | AA | KK | AK offsuit | 55 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 33.3% | 2.2x | 2.1x | 1.4x | 1.2x |
| 4 | 20.0% | 2.8x | 2.5x | 1.6x | 1.1x |
| 6 | 14.3% | 3.1x | 2.6x | 1.7x | 1.1x |
| 8 | 11.1% | 3.1x | 2.6x | 1.7x | 1.2x |
Aces go from 2.2 times their share against two players to 3.1 times against eight. AK climbs too, from 1.4 to 1.7. A small pair like 55 stays close to an average hand the whole way: it mostly needs to flop a set, and that chance doesn't grow with the number of players. So "aces lose value multiway" is true for the share of pots they win, and false compared with every other hand.
Win the pot or share it
AA wins outright, 4 opponents
Ties are rare with aces: the equity and the outright wins are almost the same number.
AK wins outright, 4 opponents
AK splits more often: another player can hold the same two ranks, or the board plays for both of you.
Against four random hands aces win the pot outright 55.6% of the time. A bit less than half the time, one of the other four hands beats them or ties them. That is what "aces get cracked" means at a full pot: four hands, each with a small chance, add up.
What these numbers leave out
Every row assumes the other players hold random hands and nobody folds. Real tables are different in both directions. Players who call a raise hold better than random hands, so your aces do worse against them than the table says. Players who fold leave you against fewer hands, which is why raising with aces before the flop is the usual play: it trims the field toward the heads-up number. Against a specific range, run the hand against that range instead. The equity against a range guide shows how, and odds of being dealt pocket aces covers how rare the hand is in the first place.
Add seats and run it
In the calculator you can add up to eight more players, each with a hand or a range. Sampled results come with the same ± as this page; heads-up hand against hand is counted exactly.
Questions
What are the odds of pocket aces winning against 3 players?
Against three random hands that all go to the river, AA has 63.8% ±0.1 equity. Heads up it is 85.2%, so two extra players take away about a fifth of the pot.
How often do pocket aces win at a full table?
Against eight random hands, all to the river, aces have 34.6% ±0.1. They lose more often than they win, but that is still 3.1 times the 11.1% an average hand would get.
Do pocket aces win more than half the time against 4 players?
Barely: 55.8% ±0.1 against four random hands. Add a fifth and it drops to 49.2% ±0.1, under half.
Why are the multiway numbers not exact?
Heads up the engine counts every hand and every board. With two or more opponents there are far too many deals to count one by one, so the app samples 1,000,000 of them and prints the margin. At that sample size the true number sits within about 0.1 of a point of the one shown.
Where the numbers come from. Every figure on this page comes from the app's own engine, the code that runs on your phone. Heads up is exact: every opponent hand and every board counted. Two or more opponents are too many boards to count, so those rows are the app's Monte Carlo: 1,000,000 random deals per row, with the 95% margin printed next to the number, the same ± the calculator shows. Engine build 482550e8. More worked numbers: the preflop all-in chart and equity against a range.
