--- title: "A5s vs Q9s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a5s-vs-q9s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a5s-vs-q9s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "Who is ahead, A5s or Q9s? A5s leads 57.32% to 42.68% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a5s-vs-jts.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a5s-vs-a2s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a6s-vs-q9s.md"] --- # A5s vs Q9s: preflop equity Who is ahead, A5s or Q9s? A5s leads 57.32% to 42.68% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. The exact count puts A5s at 57.32% and Q9s at 42.68% when the two hands see all five board cards. ## A5s against Q9s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for A5s against Q9s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A5s | 57.065 | 0.513 | 42.422 | 57.321 | | Q9s | 42.422 | 0.513 | 57.065 | 42.679 | This is a contest between two suited hands, A5s and Q9s. The two hands share no rank, which makes this a pure matchup of card strength, straight chances and flush chances. A5s is ahead, but Q9s is far from dead: it takes 424 of every 1,000 deals outright. 0.51% of boards are ties, so the equity of each hand is its win rate plus half of that. By strength against a random hand, A5s holds place 30 of 169 and Q9s holds place 43. **Boards behind the percentages: 27,396,864 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A5s | 15,634,000 | 141,000 | 11,622,000 | | Q9s | 11,622,000 | 141,000 | 15,634,000 | 16 specific deals times 1,712,304 boards gives the exact total. The won, tied and lost counts are approximations from the five-decimal percentages, rounded to the nearest thousand. **A5s against Q9s read as odds** | Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A5s | 1.343 | 1.752 | 2.357 | 0.745 | | Q9s | 0.745 | 2.357 | 1.752 | 1.343 | The last column is the break-even price: the pot odds a call needs to offer, as a ratio of pot to call. ## Who is ahead on which flops Across the five flop textures A5s' equity moves by 7.38 points, from 54.85% on monotone flops to 62.23% on paired flops. A5s stays ahead on all five textures. **A5s against Q9s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | A5s wins | Ties | Q9s wins | A5s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 24.543 | 56.318 | 0.162 | 43.520 | 56.399 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 6.366 | 57.447 | 0.856 | 41.697 | 57.875 | | Two-tone | 46.727 | 56.075 | 0.276 | 43.649 | 56.213 | | Monotone | 5.273 | 53.131 | 3.431 | 43.438 | 54.847 | | Paired | 17.091 | 61.912 | 0.641 | 37.447 | 62.232 | 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 How much does the opponent matter? Compared with its random-hand 59.92%, A5s changes by -2.60 points, and Q9s, from 57.66%, by -14.98. **A5s and Q9s 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A5s, all flops | 57.321 | 59.923 | -2.602 | 0.95658 | | A5s, rainbow, ten or higher | 56.399 | 59.923 | -3.524 | 0.94119 | | A5s, rainbow, nine or lower | 57.875 | 59.923 | -2.048 | 0.96582 | | A5s, two-tone | 56.213 | 59.923 | -3.710 | 0.93809 | | A5s, monotone | 54.847 | 59.923 | -5.076 | 0.91529 | | A5s, paired | 62.232 | 59.923 | +2.309 | 1.03853 | | Q9s, all flops | 42.679 | 57.664 | -14.985 | 0.74013 | | Q9s, rainbow, ten or higher | 43.601 | 57.664 | -14.063 | 0.75612 | | Q9s, rainbow, nine or lower | 42.125 | 57.664 | -15.539 | 0.73053 | | Q9s, two-tone | 43.787 | 57.664 | -13.877 | 0.75935 | | Q9s, monotone | 45.153 | 57.664 | -12.511 | 0.78304 | | Q9s, paired | 37.768 | 57.664 | -19.896 | 0.65497 | ## Does a shared suit matter? When the hands share a suit, A5s holds 59.21%; when they do not, it holds 56.69%. A5s does better with a shared suit, by 2.52 points. **A5s against Q9s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | A5s wins | Ties | Q9s wins | A5s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 4 | 25.00 | 58.915 | 0.594 | 40.491 | 59.212 | | No shared suit | 12 | 75.00 | 56.448 | 0.486 | 43.066 | 56.691 | ## How often this matchup comes up Exactly 16 specific deals fit this matchup in one seat order, which is 0.0010% of 1,624,350; both orders together give 32, or 0.0020%. ## A worked example To see what the equity is worth, imagine $100 each in a $200 pot. A5s is worth $114.64 on average (+$14.64); Q9s is worth $85.36 (-$14.64). Out of 1,000 deals you should see around 571 outright wins for A5s, 424 for Q9s, and 5 split pots. ## The same matchup from the other side If you came looking for Q9s against A5s, the numbers are the same with the hands swapped: 42.68% and 57.32%. ## Keep exploring The calculator link fills in As5s against Qh9h, a deal where the two hands share no suit. Change any card to test your own hand. The neighboring matchups below swap one of the two hands for one of similar strength. - [Open As5s against Qh9h in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=As5s&p2=Qh9h) - [A5s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a5s.md) - [Q9s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/q9s.md) - [A5s vs JTs](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a5s-vs-jts.md) - [A5s vs A2s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a5s-vs-a2s.md) - [A6s vs Q9s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a6s-vs-q9s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed The figures are counted, not estimated: 1,712,304 boards for every suit pattern of the 16 specific deals, with both seven-card hands compared each time. Equity gives half a win for a tie. For the flop rows, a board is counted once under each of the ten flops inside it. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [A5s vs JTs: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a5s-vs-jts.md) - [A5s vs A2s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a5s-vs-a2s.md) - [A6s vs Q9s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a6s-vs-q9s.md)