--- title: "99 vs 77: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/99-vs-77.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/99-vs-77" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "99 is a big favorite over 77 before the flop: 81.56% to 18.44% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/99-vs-aqs.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/99-vs-ajs.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-77.md"] --- # 99 vs 77: preflop equity 99 is a big favorite over 77 before the flop: 81.56% to 18.44% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Counting every board, the equity split is 81.56% for 99 and 18.44% for 77, so 99 leads by 63.12 points. ## 99 against 77: the numbers **Exact preflop results for 99 against 77, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 99 | 81.231 | 0.656 | 18.113 | 81.559 | | 77 | 18.113 | 0.656 | 81.231 | 18.441 | The matchup is pocket pairs on both sides, 99 against 77. A pair against a smaller pair is the classic crush: the smaller pair needs one of its two remaining cards to make a set. 99 is a big favorite here before anyone sees a flop. 0.66% of boards are ties, so the equity of each hand is its win rate plus half of that. In the ranking of all 169 starting hands, 99 is number 6 and 77 is number 9. **Boards behind the percentages: 61,642,944 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 99 | 50,073,000 | 404,000 | 11,165,000 | | 77 | 11,165,000 | 404,000 | 50,073,000 | The board total is exact, 36 deals at 1,712,304 boards each. Won, tied and lost counts are rounded to the nearest thousand from the five-decimal percentages. **99 against 77 read as odds** | Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 99 | 4.423 | 1.231 | 5.521 | 0.226 | | 77 | 0.226 | 5.521 | 1.231 | 4.423 | The final column gives the least the pot must offer for each unit called for a call to break even at this equity. ## Who is ahead on which flops Across the five flop textures 99's equity moves by 14.08 points, from 72.13% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) to 86.21% on paired flops. 99 stays ahead on all five textures. **99 against 77 by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | 99 wins | Ties | 77 wins | 99 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.844 | 82.823 | 0.405 | 16.772 | 83.025 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.065 | 71.850 | 0.565 | 27.585 | 72.132 | | Two-tone | 46.363 | 80.428 | 0.419 | 19.153 | 80.637 | | Monotone | 5.152 | 74.998 | 1.831 | 23.171 | 75.913 | | Paired | 17.576 | 85.539 | 1.334 | 13.127 | 86.206 | Rainbow flops have three suits, two-tone flops repeat one suit, monotone flops are all one suit, and paired flops repeat a rank. ## Compared with a random hand Compared with a random opponent, this matchup shifts 99 from 72.06% by +9.50 points and 77 from 66.24% by -47.80 points. **99 and 77 here compared with each against a random hand, in percent** | Case | Equity here | Against a random hand | Change in points | Times the random-hand equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 99, all flops | 81.559 | 72.057 | +9.502 | 1.13187 | | 99, rainbow, ten or higher | 83.025 | 72.057 | +10.968 | 1.15221 | | 99, rainbow, nine or lower | 72.132 | 72.057 | +0.075 | 1.00104 | | 99, two-tone | 80.637 | 72.057 | +8.580 | 1.11907 | | 99, monotone | 75.913 | 72.057 | +3.856 | 1.05351 | | 99, paired | 86.206 | 72.057 | +14.149 | 1.19636 | | 77, all flops | 18.441 | 66.236 | -47.795 | 0.27841 | | 77, rainbow, ten or higher | 16.975 | 66.236 | -49.261 | 0.25628 | | 77, rainbow, nine or lower | 27.868 | 66.236 | -38.368 | 0.42074 | | 77, two-tone | 19.363 | 66.236 | -46.873 | 0.29233 | | 77, monotone | 24.087 | 66.236 | -42.149 | 0.36365 | | 77, paired | 13.794 | 66.236 | -52.442 | 0.20826 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Two kinds of deal exist here. In 30 of them the hands share a suit and 99 holds 81.70%. In 6 they do not, and it holds 80.88%. 99 does better with a shared suit, by 0.82 points. **99 against 77 by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | 99 wins | Ties | 77 wins | 99 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 30 | 83.33 | 81.360 | 0.672 | 17.968 | 81.696 | | No shared suit | 6 | 16.67 | 80.587 | 0.578 | 18.835 | 80.876 | ## How often this matchup comes up The class pair covers 36 combinations of specific cards in a fixed seat order, 0.0022% of 1,624,350, and 72 (0.0044%) in either order. ## A worked example To see what the equity is worth, imagine $100 each in a $200 pot. 99 is worth $163.12 on average (+$63.12); 77 is worth $36.88 (-$63.12). A thousand deals look like this: 99 takes 812, 77 takes 181, 7 are ties. ## The same matchup from the other side Swap the hands and you get 77 with 18.44% against 99 with 81.56%. We keep one page per matchup, with the better-ranked hand first. ## Keep exploring 9s9h against 7d7c is a ready-made deal for the calculator, with no suit in common between the hands. The neighboring matchups below replace one hand with another of similar strength. - [Open 9s9h against 7d7c in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=9s9h&p2=7d7c) - [99 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/99.md) - [77 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/77.md) - [99 vs AQs](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/99-vs-aqs.md) - [99 vs AJs](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/99-vs-ajs.md) - [88 vs 77](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-77.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed Each figure is a complete count over boards. Take the 36 specific deals, group them by suit pattern, deal all 1,712,304 boards against each, and compare the two seven-card hands. Equity counts a tie as half a win; the flop rows use every one of a board's ten flops. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [99 vs AQs: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/99-vs-aqs.md) - [99 vs AJs: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/99-vs-ajs.md) - [88 vs 77: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-77.md)