Pokeriad / Learn / Pocket kings
Updated November 2026
Raise pocket kings every time, and be ready to play for your whole stack unless an ace shows up or the betting says you're beaten. An ace lands on the flop 22.6% of the time, less than 1 time in 4, and even then your opponent doesn't always hold one.
Kings are the second best starting hand and beat one random hand 82.6 times in 100. Only pocket aces are ahead of them before the flop, and a given opponent holds aces about 1 time in 204.
| What happened | What you do |
|---|---|
| Folded to you | Raise to 3 big blinds |
| Someone raised | Re-raise to 3 times that bet, or 4 times if you act first after the flop |
| They go all-in | Call, unless this player only does it with aces |
| No ace on the flop | Bet half to two-thirds of the pot |
| Ace, one opponent | Bet a third of the pot once, or check |
| Ace, two or more opponents | Check, and fold to a big bet |
Four aces are somewhere in the 50 cards you can't see. The chance that none of them lands in the three flop cards is 46/50 × 45/49 × 44/48, which is 77.4%. So an ace flops the other 22.6% of the time.
Follow the hand to the river and it climbs to 35.3%. By then you'll usually know where you stand, because somebody will have bet.
Exactly as you'd raise aces: 3 big blinds when it's folded to you, plus 1 for each limper, and a re-raise to 3 or 4 times anyone else's bet. Kings earn their money when a worse hand decides to fight back, and the chart shows how far ahead you are of the hands most players raise with.
Your share if all the money goes in before the flop, every board counted
They beat an equal share at every table size. The gap to aces grows from 2.7 points against one opponent to 6.7 against five, because more players means more chances that someone holds an ace to go with the one that might flop.
Chance of winning if everyone stays to the river
Don't fold on reflex. Against one random hand on ace-seven-two, kings win 80 times in 100, because only 3 aces are left in 47 unseen cards.
The catch is that nobody calls a raise with a random hand. Take a caller who plays every pair, every suited ace, ace-ten or better and a few suited connectors. On that flop, 67 of their 154 possible hands hold an ace. That's 44%, close to a coin flip before anyone has bet.
With one ace already on the flop and every opponent holding random cards
Almost never. Your only worry is aces, so the question is how many of the hands this player would go all-in with are aces. Pick the hands they'd do it with, enter the price, and the tool adds it up.
If you're sure they only go all-in with aces or kings, your kings win 23 times in 100 and you fold at most prices. Add queens and ace-king and you win 57 times in 100, so you call. Very few players are tight enough for the first case, and you need to have seen it to believe it.
A $1/$2 game, with the pot shown after each round of betting.
You raise to $6 and the button calls. Both blinds fold, leaving their $1 and $2 in the pot.
You bet $5, a third of the pot, and the button calls.
You check and the button bets $18. You'd pay $18 to win $43, so you need to win 18 / 61, or 30% of the time. If they have an ace, only 2 kings can save you on the river: 2 / 46 is 4.3%.
A player who calls the flop and then bets when you check usually has the ace. Your total cost is $11: $6 before the flop and $5 on it.
Eleven dollars is a cheap way out. Players who can't let go of kings lose their whole stack on boards like this one, to an ace that was there all along.
Twelve spots in three rounds: before the flop, when the ace comes, and doing the price at the table.
Once every 221 hands, the same as aces or any other pair.
Against one opponent, 6 of the 1,225 hands they could hold are aces, about 1 time in 204. Against eight random opponents, it's about 1 time in 25.
Only against a player you've seen show aces in that spot before, and only when the price is poor. Fold them once and you've given up a hand that wins far more than it loses.
Only pocket aces are ahead. Ace-king is behind, at about 30 times in 100 offsuit and 34 suited, even though it has an ace.
Often, when nobody has one. Against a random hand on an ace-high flop they win 80 times in 100. Against a hand that holds an ace they win about 9.
Win rates against 1, 2, 3, 5 and 8 opponents come from 60,000 random deals at each table size, with ties shared. Head-to-head numbers count every possible board and every suit pairing.
An ace by the river is 1 minus (46 × 45 × 44 × 43 × 42) / (50 × 49 × 48 × 47 × 46). With one ace on the flop, the chance that some opponent holds one uses the 44 non-aces among the 47 unseen cards. The caller's 154 hands are one example list that we chose, counted card by card on ace-seven-two. Eight random opponents holding aces comes from 400,000 random deals.
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