--- title: "A9o Combos: Count, Blockers, Board Pairs" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a9o.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a9o" last_updated: "2026-10-21" type: "reference" summary: "A9o is 12 combos of the 1,326 starting hands (0.90%). See how a known card or a board pair changes the count, plus its rank and equity." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/combos.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a7s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/combos/kjo.md"] --- # A9o Combos: Count, Blockers, Board Pairs A9o is 12 combos of the 1,326 starting hands (0.90%). See how a known card or a board pair changes the count, plus its rank and equity. 12 combos make up A9o, and the whole deck holds 1,326 two-card hands, so you are dealt it 0.90% of the time. It is number 25 of the 169 classes at 60.77% equity against a random hand. - Combos: 12 - Share of 1,326: 0.90% - Rank of 169: 25 - Equity vs random: 60.77% - This hand and stronger: 12.52% ## A9o: the 12 combos Pair each of the 4 aces with each of the 4 nines to get 16, then remove the 4 suited pairings. A9o is the other 12. All 12 ways to hold A9o are shown here, one tile each. Counting them is how a range gets its size. The 12 combos of A9o: As 9h, As 9d, As 9c, Ah 9s, Ah 9d, Ah 9c, Ad 9s, Ad 9h, Ad 9c, Ac 9s, Ac 9h, Ac 9d. ## How cards you can see change the count Every card you can see is a card nobody else can hold. The table shows how many of the 12 combos of A9o are still possible when you hold one card of each rank, and the same count applies when that card is on the board. A9o combos left after one known card of each rank: | Known card | A9o combos left | | --- | --- | | Ace | 9 | | King | 12 | | Queen | 12 | | Jack | 12 | | Ten | 12 | | Nine | 9 | | Eight | 12 | | Seven | 12 | | Six | 12 | | Five | 12 | | Four | 12 | | Three | 12 | | Two | 12 | Only two ranks change the count: an ace or a nine leaves 9 combos, 25% fewer. Any card of a different rank leaves all 12 combos in play. ## When the board is paired How does a paired board change the count? For A9o, the rows below show the combos left after the board pairs each rank in turn. A9o combos left after a pair of each rank on the board: | Board pair | A9o combos left | | --- | --- | | Aces | 6 | | Kings | 12 | | Queens | 12 | | Jacks | 12 | | Tens | 12 | | Nines | 6 | | Eights | 12 | | Sevens | 12 | | Sixes | 12 | | Fives | 12 | | Fours | 12 | | Threes | 12 | | Twos | 12 | A board pair of aces or nines leaves 6 combos of A9o; a pair of any other rank leaves all 12. ## A worked example Worked example: your cards are an ace and a two, so 1,225 two-card hands remain for your opponent. Of those, 9 are A9o, a 0.73% chance (about 1 in 136). With two cards that do not touch A9o, it would be 12 combos and 0.98%. ## How strong is A9o? A9o holds rank 25 among the 169 classes, inside the top 30 classes. Against a random hand it has 60.77% equity: wins in full, ties as half, every board counted. 154 combos rank above A9o, and with its own 12 the running total is 166, 12.52% of the 1,326 hands. ## A9o against ranges of hands Take the strongest hands in rank order and ask how A9o does against them. The answers, with live combos as weights: 29.93% against the top 5 percent (60 combos), 31.76% against the top 10 percent (130 combos), 46.23% against the top 20 percent (264 combos), 51.75% against the top 30 percent (386 combos) and 56.44% against the top 50 percent (658 combos). A9o equity against the strongest hands: | Opponent range | Combos in range | A9o equity | | --- | --- | --- | | Top 5 percent | 60 | 29.93% | | Top 10 percent | 130 | 31.76% | | Top 20 percent | 264 | 46.23% | | Top 30 percent | 386 | 51.75% | | Top 50 percent | 658 | 56.44% | The line sits between the top 20 and top 30 percent: A9o is behind the narrower range and ahead of the wider one. Your cards matter to the opponent's range too: with A9o, 106.00 of the 130 top-10-percent combos survive on average. That is 24.00 combos fewer than the 130 an opponent has before you look. ## Hands next to A9o Two quick matchups show where A9o stands among its neighbours. A9o has 65.04% equity against A7s, the hand ranked number 24: it wins 57.61% of boards, ties 14.86% and loses 27.53%. It is the favorite in that matchup. A9o has 58.06% equity against KJo, the hand ranked number 26: it wins 57.84% of boards, ties 0.44% and loses 41.72%. It is the favorite in that matchup. Next to A9o sits A9s, its suited twin: rank 18, 4 combos, 62.78% equity against a random hand. A9o has 3 times as many combos as A9s and is 2.01 points weaker against a random hand. Related to A9o: - [A7s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a7s.md) - [KJo combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/kjo.md) - [A9s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a9s.md) - [Top 15 percent range](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/range/15.md) - [All starting hands](https://georgelipoker.com/combos.md) - [Hand ranking calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/hand-ranking-calculator.md) - [Poker equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md) - [A7s vs A9o: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a7s-vs-a9o.md) - [A9o vs KJo: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9o-vs-kjo.md) - [A9o vs 55: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9o-vs-55.md) ## Questions about A9o combos **How many combos of A9o are there?** 12 combos, which is 0.90% of the 1,326 two-card starting hands, so you are dealt A9o about 1 time in 110.5. **How many A9o combos are left if I hold an ace?** 9 combos of A9o remain out of 12. With a two as your other card, an opponent has it about 1 time in 136. **Is A9o stronger than A9s?** No: A9o has 60.77% equity against a random hand and ranks number 25, while A9s has 62.78% and ranks number 18. A9s has 4 combos to A9o's 12. ## How this was computed We counted from the deck itself: 1,326 possible two-card hands, each placed in one of 169 classes. A table row then deletes the combos that need a card known to be elsewhere, and the survivors are tallied. Equity comes from an exact table of preflop matchups, every one of the 1,712,304 boards counted. A tie is half a win, and each hand in a range is weighted by the combos your cards leave. Source: GeorgeLiPoker's own count of the 52-card deck and its preflop matchup table. ## Related - [Poker Combos: Count Every Starting Hand](https://georgelipoker.com/combos.md) - [A7s Combos: Count, Blockers, Board Pairs](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a7s.md) - [KJo Combos: Count, Blockers, Board Pairs](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/kjo.md)