--- title: "99 vs 97s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/99-vs-97s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/99-vs-97s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "99 is a big favorite over 97s before the flop: 83.48% to 16.52% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/99-vs-87s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/99-vs-86s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-97s.md"] --- # 99 vs 97s: preflop equity 99 is a big favorite over 97s before the flop: 83.48% to 16.52% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. In equity, 99 against 97s stands at 83.48% to 16.52%, a gap of 66.96 points. ## 99 against 97s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for 99 against 97s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 99 | 81.931 | 3.089 | 14.980 | 83.476 | | 97s | 14.980 | 3.089 | 81.931 | 16.524 | 99 is a pocket pair and 97s is a suited hand. The non-pair hand shares a rank with the pair, so two of its outs for pairing are blocked by the pair itself. 99 is a big favorite here before anyone sees a flop. A split pot comes up on 3.09% of boards, so the wins and the equity differ by half of that. In the ranking of all 169 starting hands, 99 is number 6 and 97s is number 94. **Boards behind the percentages: 20,547,648 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 99 | 16,835,000 | 635,000 | 3,078,000 | | 97s | 3,078,000 | 635,000 | 16,835,000 | Exact total: 12 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 97s 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 | 5.052 | 1.221 | 6.676 | 0.198 | | 97s | 0.198 | 6.676 | 1.221 | 5.052 | In the last column, a pot-to-call ratio at or above the figure makes a call break even or better at this equity. ## Who is ahead on which flops Rainbow flops topped by a ten or better are the best for 99 (87.49%); monotone flops are the worst (74.75%). 99 stays ahead on all five textures. **99 against 97s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | 99 wins | Ties | 97s wins | 99 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.786 | 85.998 | 2.980 | 11.022 | 87.488 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 4.995 | 80.240 | 3.304 | 16.456 | 81.892 | | Two-tone | 46.236 | 80.622 | 2.785 | 16.593 | 82.014 | | Monotone | 5.152 | 73.055 | 3.381 | 23.564 | 74.745 | | Paired | 17.831 | 82.484 | 3.889 | 13.627 | 84.428 | Flop types: rainbow means three different suits, two-tone means one suit twice, monotone means one suit three times, paired means a repeated rank. ## Compared with a random hand How much does the opponent matter? Compared with its random-hand 72.06%, 99 changes by +11.42 points, and 97s, from 49.12%, by -32.60. **99 and 97s 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 | 83.476 | 72.057 | +11.419 | 1.15847 | | 99, rainbow, ten or higher | 87.488 | 72.057 | +15.431 | 1.21415 | | 99, rainbow, nine or lower | 81.892 | 72.057 | +9.835 | 1.13649 | | 99, two-tone | 82.014 | 72.057 | +9.957 | 1.13818 | | 99, monotone | 74.745 | 72.057 | +2.688 | 1.03730 | | 99, paired | 84.428 | 72.057 | +12.371 | 1.17168 | | 97s, all flops | 16.524 | 49.118 | -32.594 | 0.33641 | | 97s, rainbow, ten or higher | 12.512 | 49.118 | -36.606 | 0.25473 | | 97s, rainbow, nine or lower | 18.108 | 49.118 | -31.010 | 0.36866 | | 97s, two-tone | 17.986 | 49.118 | -31.132 | 0.36618 | | 97s, monotone | 25.255 | 49.118 | -23.863 | 0.51417 | | 97s, paired | 15.572 | 49.118 | -33.546 | 0.31703 | ## Does a shared suit matter? For this pair the shared-suit row is empty: the two hands cannot both own a card of one suit without reusing a card. **99 against 97s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | 99 wins | Ties | 97s wins | 99 equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 0 | 0.00 | not possible | not possible | not possible | not possible | | No shared suit | 12 | 100.00 | 81.931 | 3.089 | 14.980 | 83.476 | ## How often this matchup comes up The class pair covers 12 combinations of specific cards in a fixed seat order, 0.0007% of 1,624,350, and 24 (0.0015%) in either order. ## A worked example Put $100 each into a $200 pot and deal every board once: 99 averages $166.96 back, ahead of its $100 by $66.96, while 97s averages $33.04, short of its $100 by $66.96. Think in thousands: about 819 of 1,000 go to 99, about 150 go to 97s, and about 31 are chopped. ## The same matchup from the other side Read it from the other side: 97s against 99 is the same matchup with the numbers swapped, so 97s holds 16.52% and 99 holds 83.48%. That address sends you back to this page. ## Keep exploring Try 9s9h against 9d7d 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 9d7d in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=9s9h&p2=9d7d) - [99 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/99.md) - [97s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/97s.md) - [99 vs 87s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/99-vs-87s.md) - [99 vs 86s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/99-vs-86s.md) - [88 vs 97s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-97s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed Method: exact enumeration. The 12 specific deals are grouped by suit pattern, each is run against all 1,712,304 boards, and both seven-card hands are scored. Equity adds half of every tie, and flop textures are tallied over the ten flops inside each board. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [99 vs 87s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/99-vs-87s.md) - [99 vs 86s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/99-vs-86s.md) - [88 vs 97s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/88-vs-97s.md)