--- title: "99 vs 87s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/99-vs-87s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/99-vs-87s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "99 is a big favorite over 87s before the flop: 81.62% to 18.38% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/99-vs-86s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/99-vs-76s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-87s.md"] --- # 99 vs 87s: preflop equity 99 is a big favorite over 87s before the flop: 81.62% to 18.38% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Before any board card is dealt, 99 holds 81.62% equity against 87s, which leaves 87s with 18.38%. ## 99 against 87s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for 99 against 87s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 99 | 81.308 | 0.625 | 18.067 | 81.621 | | 87s | 18.067 | 0.625 | 81.308 | 18.379 | 99 and 87s are a pocket pair and a suited hand, in that order. A pair against two lower cards is a lopsided matchup: the pair is ahead and the other hand has no overcard to catch. This is one of the lopsided matchups: 87s wins only 18.06% of the boards outright. Of every 100 boards, about 0.63 are split pots, and the equity figures already include them. The hand ranking puts 99 at 6 and 87s at 100 out of 169 starting hands. **Boards behind the percentages: 41,095,296 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 99 | 33,414,000 | 257,000 | 7,425,000 | | 87s | 7,425,000 | 257,000 | 33,414,000 | Exact total: 24 deals times 1,712,304 boards. The other three counts come from the five-decimal percentages and are rounded to the nearest thousand, so read them as approximate. **99 against 87s 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 | 4.441 | 1.230 | 5.535 | 0.225 | | 87s | 0.225 | 5.535 | 1.230 | 4.441 | 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 99 prefers rainbow flops topped by a ten or better, where it holds 85.47%, and likes low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) least, where it holds 73.70%. 99 stays ahead on all five textures. **99 against 87s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | 99 wins | Ties | 87s wins | 99 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.844 | 85.283 | 0.383 | 14.334 | 85.474 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.065 | 73.528 | 0.345 | 26.127 | 73.701 | | Two-tone | 46.545 | 79.665 | 0.354 | 19.981 | 79.842 | | Monotone | 5.212 | 74.313 | 2.446 | 23.241 | 75.536 | | Paired | 17.334 | 84.170 | 1.250 | 14.580 | 84.795 | Read the flop types this way: rainbow has three suits, two-tone has two cards of one suit, monotone has three, and paired repeats a rank. ## Compared with a random hand Compared with a random opponent, this matchup shifts 99 from 72.06% by +9.56 points and 87s from 47.94% by -29.56 points. **99 and 87s 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 | 81.621 | 72.057 | +9.564 | 1.13273 | | 99, rainbow, ten or higher | 85.474 | 72.057 | +13.417 | 1.18620 | | 99, rainbow, nine or lower | 73.701 | 72.057 | +1.644 | 1.02282 | | 99, two-tone | 79.842 | 72.057 | +7.785 | 1.10804 | | 99, monotone | 75.536 | 72.057 | +3.479 | 1.04828 | | 99, paired | 84.795 | 72.057 | +12.738 | 1.17678 | | 87s, all flops | 18.379 | 47.936 | -29.557 | 0.38341 | | 87s, rainbow, ten or higher | 14.526 | 47.936 | -33.410 | 0.30303 | | 87s, rainbow, nine or lower | 26.299 | 47.936 | -21.637 | 0.54863 | | 87s, two-tone | 20.158 | 47.936 | -27.778 | 0.42052 | | 87s, monotone | 24.464 | 47.936 | -23.472 | 0.51035 | | 87s, paired | 15.205 | 47.936 | -32.731 | 0.31719 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Of the deals of this matchup, 12 share a suit (99 at 82.18%) and 12 do not (81.06%). 99 does better with a shared suit, by 1.12 points. **99 against 87s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | 99 wins | Ties | 87s wins | 99 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 12 | 50.00 | 81.844 | 0.667 | 17.489 | 82.178 | | No shared suit | 12 | 50.00 | 80.772 | 0.584 | 18.644 | 81.064 | ## How often this matchup comes up Exactly 24 specific deals fit this matchup in one seat order, which is 0.0015% of 1,624,350; both orders together give 48, or 0.0030%. ## A worked example Take a $200 pot built from $100 each. 99's equity of 81.62% is worth $163.24, a $63.24 edge, and 87s' 18.38% is worth $36.76, which is $63.24 under its stake. In 1,000 deals of exactly this matchup, expect about 813 won outright by 99, about 181 won outright by 87s and about 6 split. ## The same matchup from the other side One page covers both views. From 87s' side the equity is 18.38%, and from 99's side it is 81.62%. ## Keep exploring Try 9s9h against 8d7d in the calculator: the hands share no suit, and every card can be changed. The links after it are the closest matchups in the ranking. - [Open 9s9h against 8d7d in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=9s9h&p2=8d7d) - [99 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/99.md) - [87s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/87s.md) - [99 vs 86s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/99-vs-86s.md) - [99 vs 76s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/99-vs-76s.md) - [88 vs 87s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-87s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed The page is built from a full enumeration: 1,712,304 boards, every suit pattern of the 24 specific deals, both seven-card hands evaluated. A tie is worth half a win to each hand, and a board is tallied under each of its ten possible flops for the texture rows. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [99 vs 86s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/99-vs-86s.md) - [99 vs 76s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/99-vs-76s.md) - [88 vs 87s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-87s.md)