A4s vs Q9s: preflop equity

If A4s and Q9s get all the chips in before the flop, A4s owns 56.94% of the pot in the long run and Q9s owns 43.06%.

A4s

56.94%

Wins 56.68%, ties 0.52%

Q9s

43.06%

Wins 42.80%, ties 0.52%

Equity counts a tie as half a win. Exact over every board.

A4s against Q9s: the numbers

Exact preflop results for A4s against Q9s, in percent
HandWinsTiesLosesEquity
A4s56.6770.52242.80156.938
Q9s42.8010.52256.67743.062

Each side holds one of the suited hands: A4s and Q9s. The two hands share no rank, which makes this a pure matchup of card strength, straight chances and flush chances.

A4s is ahead, but Q9s is far from dead: it takes 428 of every 1,000 deals outright. A split pot comes up on 0.52% of boards, so the wins and the equity differ by half of that.

Among the 169 starting hands, A4s is number 35 and Q9s is number 43 by strength against a random hand.

Boards behind the percentages: 27,396,864 counted in all
HandBoards won, aboutBoards tied, aboutBoards lost, about
A4s15,528,000143,00011,726,000
Q9s11,726,000143,00015,528,000

The board total is exact, 16 deals at 1,712,304 boards each. Won, tied and lost counts are rounded to the nearest thousand from the five-decimal percentages.

A4s against Q9s read as odds
HandEquity as odds (to 1)Wins one deal inLoses one deal inPot odds needed to call (to 1)
A4s1.3221.7642.3360.756
Q9s0.7562.3361.7641.322

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

A4s prefers paired flops, where it holds 62.10%, and likes monotone flops least, where it holds 54.55%. A4s stays ahead on all five textures.

A4s against Q9s by flop texture, in percent
FlopShare of flopsA4s winsTiesQ9s winsA4s equity
Rainbow, ten or higher24.54356.1420.16243.69656.223
Rainbow, nine or lower6.36655.7470.91443.33956.204
Two-tone46.72755.6530.28544.06255.796
Monotone5.27352.8333.43643.73154.551
Paired17.09161.7740.64537.58162.096

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

Start from the random-hand figures, 59.03% for A4s and 57.66% for Q9s. This opponent changes them by -2.09 and -14.60 points.

A4s and Q9s here compared with each against a random hand, in percent
CaseEquity hereAgainst a random handChange in pointsTimes the random-hand equity
A4s, all flops56.93859.034-2.0960.96450
A4s, rainbow, ten or higher56.22359.034-2.8110.95238
A4s, rainbow, nine or lower56.20459.034-2.8300.95206
A4s, two-tone55.79659.034-3.2380.94515
A4s, monotone54.55159.034-4.4830.92406
A4s, paired62.09659.034+3.0621.05187
Q9s, all flops43.06257.664-14.6020.74677
Q9s, rainbow, ten or higher43.77757.664-13.8870.75917
Q9s, rainbow, nine or lower43.79657.664-13.8680.75950
Q9s, two-tone44.20457.664-13.4600.76658
Q9s, monotone45.44957.664-12.2150.78817
Q9s, paired37.90457.664-19.7600.65733

Does a shared suit matter?

Suit overlap shows up in the numbers. With a suit in common A4s has 58.79% equity, and with none in common it has 56.32%. A4s does better with a shared suit, by 2.47 points.

A4s against Q9s by suit overlap, in percent
DealsSpecific dealsShare of dealsA4s winsTiesQ9s winsA4s equity
Share a suit425.0058.4880.60440.90858.790
No shared suit1275.0056.0730.49543.43256.320

How often this matchup comes up

Out of 1,624,350 ways to deal two seats two cards each, 16 are A4s in one seat and Q9s in the other (0.0010%); with the seats swapped too, 32 (0.0020%).

A worked example

With $100 from each side, the $200 pot is split on average as $113.88 for A4s and $86.12 for Q9s; the first side gains $13.88 per all-in and the second gives up $13.88.

In 1,000 deals of exactly this matchup, expect about 567 won outright by A4s, about 428 won outright by Q9s and about 5 split.

The same matchup from the other side

Q9s versus A4s is this same page seen from the other hand: 43.06% for Q9s, 56.94% for A4s.

As4s against Qh9h 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

We counted every case. Each suit pattern of the 16 specific A4s against Q9s deals meets all 1,712,304 boards, and the better five-card hand wins; a split pot is half a win each. The flop table reads each board under all ten of its three-card flops.

Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used.

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