99
63.97%
Wins 62.96%, ties 2.02%
Q9s
36.03%
Wins 35.02%, ties 2.02%
99 against Q9s: the numbers
| Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 99 | 62.958 | 2.020 | 35.022 | 63.968 |
| Q9s | 35.022 | 2.020 | 62.958 | 36.032 |
99, a pocket pair, plays Q9s, a suited hand. The pair already holds one of the other hand's ranks, and that overlap cuts down the cards the other hand can pair with.
That is a modest edge, the kind that shows up over many hands and is easy to miss in one. The tie share is 2.02%: on those boards the pot is chopped and neither hand wins outright.
By strength against a random hand, 99 holds place 6 of 169 and Q9s holds place 43.
| Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about |
|---|---|---|---|
| 99 | 12,936,000 | 415,000 | 7,196,000 |
| Q9s | 7,196,000 | 415,000 | 12,936,000 |
The board total is exact, 12 deals at 1,712,304 boards each. Won, tied and lost counts are rounded to the nearest thousand from the five-decimal percentages.
| Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 99 | 1.775 | 1.588 | 2.855 | 0.563 |
| Q9s | 0.563 | 2.855 | 1.588 | 1.775 |
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 low rainbow flops (nine high or lower), where it holds 83.13%, and likes monotone flops least, where it holds 60.16%. 99 stays ahead on all five textures, but the swing between them is large, so how the flop looks matters a great deal.
| Flop | Share of flops | 99 wins | Ties | Q9s wins | 99 equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.197 | 59.798 | 1.917 | 38.285 | 60.756 |
| Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.585 | 81.121 | 4.010 | 14.869 | 83.126 |
| Two-tone | 46.236 | 60.571 | 2.086 | 37.343 | 61.614 |
| Monotone | 5.151 | 58.739 | 2.848 | 38.413 | 60.163 |
| Paired | 17.831 | 69.144 | 1.128 | 29.728 | 69.708 |
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
Relative to a random opponent, 99 changes by -8.09 points (baseline 72.06%) and Q9s by -21.63 points (baseline 57.66%).
| Case | Equity here | Against a random hand | Change in points | Times the random-hand equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 99, all flops | 63.968 | 72.057 | -8.089 | 0.88774 |
| 99, rainbow, ten or higher | 60.756 | 72.057 | -11.301 | 0.84317 |
| 99, rainbow, nine or lower | 83.126 | 72.057 | +11.069 | 1.15361 |
| 99, two-tone | 61.614 | 72.057 | -10.443 | 0.85507 |
| 99, monotone | 60.163 | 72.057 | -11.894 | 0.83494 |
| 99, paired | 69.708 | 72.057 | -2.349 | 0.96740 |
| Q9s, all flops | 36.032 | 57.664 | -21.632 | 0.62486 |
| Q9s, rainbow, ten or higher | 39.244 | 57.664 | -18.420 | 0.68056 |
| Q9s, rainbow, nine or lower | 16.874 | 57.664 | -40.790 | 0.29263 |
| Q9s, two-tone | 38.386 | 57.664 | -19.278 | 0.66568 |
| Q9s, monotone | 39.837 | 57.664 | -17.827 | 0.69085 |
| Q9s, paired | 30.292 | 57.664 | -27.372 | 0.52532 |
Does a shared suit matter?
There is no shared-suit case for this pair, since the cards they would need are already in the other hand. Every deal is a no-shared-suit deal.
| Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | 99 wins | Ties | Q9s wins | 99 equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Share a suit | 0 | 0.00 | not possible | not possible | not possible | not possible |
| No shared suit | 12 | 100.00 | 62.958 | 2.020 | 35.022 | 63.968 |
How often this matchup comes up
Counting specific cards, 99 against Q9s appears in 12 of the 1,624,350 ordered heads-up deals (0.0007%), and in 24 when the seats are swapped too (0.0015%).
A worked example
With $100 from each side, the $200 pot is split on average as $127.94 for 99 and $72.06 for Q9s; the first side gains $27.94 per all-in and the second gives up $27.94.
Scaled to 1,000 deals, that is roughly 630 wins for 99, 350 for Q9s and 20 chopped pots.
The same matchup from the other side
Swap the hands and you get Q9s with 36.03% against 99 with 63.97%. We keep one page per matchup, with the better-ranked hand first.
Keep exploring
9s9h against Qd9d 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.
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.
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