--- title: "A9o vs 86s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9o-vs-86s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9o-vs-86s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "Who is ahead, A9o or 86s? A9o leads 59.81% to 40.19% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9o-vs-76s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9o-vs-75s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kjo-vs-86s.md"] --- # A9o vs 86s: preflop equity Who is ahead, A9o or 86s? A9o leads 59.81% to 40.19% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Averaged over every possible board, A9o is ahead of 86s by 19.62 points of equity, 59.81% to 40.19%. ## A9o against 86s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for A9o against 86s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A9o | 59.599 | 0.416 | 39.985 | 59.807 | | 86s | 39.985 | 0.416 | 59.599 | 40.193 | A9o and 86s are an offsuit hand and a suited hand, in that order. Neither hand shares a rank with the other, so this is a contest of high cards, connection and suits. A 19.62 point lead is real, and 86s still takes about 400 of every 1,000 deals outright. 0.42% of boards are ties, so the equity of each hand is its win rate plus half of that. The hand ranking puts A9o at 25 and 86s at 110 out of 169 starting hands. **Boards behind the percentages: 82,190,592 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A9o | 48,985,000 | 342,000 | 32,864,000 | | 86s | 32,864,000 | 342,000 | 48,985,000 | 48 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. **A9o against 86s read as odds** | Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A9o | 1.488 | 1.678 | 2.501 | 0.672 | | 86s | 0.672 | 2.501 | 1.678 | 1.488 | 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 Across the five flop textures A9o's equity moves by 20.85 points, from 43.82% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) to 64.67% on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better. The lead reverses on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower): there 86s is the favorite even though A9o is ahead overall. **A9o against 86s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | A9o wins | Ties | 86s wins | A9o equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.341 | 64.578 | 0.178 | 35.244 | 64.667 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.689 | 43.554 | 0.531 | 55.915 | 43.820 | | Two-tone | 46.667 | 57.967 | 0.228 | 41.805 | 58.081 | | Monotone | 5.212 | 56.857 | 2.350 | 40.793 | 58.032 | | Paired | 17.091 | 62.848 | 0.653 | 36.499 | 63.174 | 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 Each hand has a baseline against a random hand: 60.77% for A9o, 46.24% for 86s. Here the change is -0.96 and -6.05 points. **A9o and 86s 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A9o, all flops | 59.807 | 60.773 | -0.966 | 0.98410 | | A9o, rainbow, ten or higher | 64.667 | 60.773 | +3.894 | 1.06407 | | A9o, rainbow, nine or lower | 43.820 | 60.773 | -16.953 | 0.72104 | | A9o, two-tone | 58.081 | 60.773 | -2.692 | 0.95570 | | A9o, monotone | 58.032 | 60.773 | -2.741 | 0.95490 | | A9o, paired | 63.174 | 60.773 | +2.401 | 1.03951 | | 86s, all flops | 40.193 | 46.243 | -6.050 | 0.86917 | | 86s, rainbow, ten or higher | 35.333 | 46.243 | -10.910 | 0.76407 | | 86s, rainbow, nine or lower | 56.180 | 46.243 | +9.937 | 1.21489 | | 86s, two-tone | 41.919 | 46.243 | -4.324 | 0.90649 | | 86s, monotone | 41.968 | 46.243 | -4.275 | 0.90755 | | 86s, paired | 36.826 | 46.243 | -9.417 | 0.79636 | ## Does a shared suit matter? The suit split reads 60.48% for A9o with a shared suit and 59.13% without one. A9o does better with a shared suit, by 1.35 points. **A9o against 86s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | A9o wins | Ties | 86s wins | A9o equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 24 | 50.00 | 60.252 | 0.457 | 39.291 | 60.481 | | No shared suit | 24 | 50.00 | 58.945 | 0.375 | 40.680 | 59.133 | ## How often this matchup comes up Out of 1,624,350 ways to deal two seats two cards each, 48 are A9o in one seat and 86s in the other (0.0030%); with the seats swapped too, 96 (0.0059%). ## A worked example To see what the equity is worth, imagine $100 each in a $200 pot. A9o is worth $119.62 on average (+$19.62); 86s is worth $80.38 (-$19.62). Out of 1,000 deals you should see around 596 outright wins for A9o, 400 for 86s, and 4 split pots. ## The same matchup from the other side Swap the hands and you get 86s with 40.19% against A9o with 59.81%. We keep one page per matchup, with the better-ranked hand first. ## Keep exploring The calculator link fills in As9h against 8d6d, 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 As9h against 8d6d in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=As9h&p2=8d6d) - [A9o combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a9o.md) - [86s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/86s.md) - [A9o vs 76s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9o-vs-76s.md) - [A9o vs 75s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9o-vs-75s.md) - [KJo vs 86s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kjo-vs-86s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed Nothing here is simulated. The 48 deals of A9o against 86s fall into a few suit patterns, each dealt against all 1,712,304 boards, with both best five-card hands compared on every board. Ties give each hand half a win, and the flop rows count a board under each of its ten flops. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [A9o vs 76s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9o-vs-76s.md) - [A9o vs 75s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9o-vs-75s.md) - [KJo vs 86s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kjo-vs-86s.md)