--- title: "A9o vs A3s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9o-vs-a3s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9o-vs-a3s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "A9o is a big favorite over A3s before the flop: 64.01% to 35.99% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9o-vs-qjo.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9o-vs-k9o.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kjo-vs-a3s.md"] --- # A9o vs A3s: preflop equity A9o is a big favorite over A3s before the flop: 64.01% to 35.99% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Averaged over every possible board, A9o is ahead of A3s by 28.02 points of equity, 64.01% to 35.99%. ## A9o against A3s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for A9o against A3s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A9o | 56.476 | 15.072 | 28.452 | 64.012 | | A3s | 28.452 | 15.072 | 56.476 | 35.988 | A9o, an offsuit hand, plays A3s, a suited hand. Sharing a rank is the signature of a dominated hand, since the weaker hand is usually out-kicked when the shared rank shows up. A 28.02 point lead is real, and A3s still takes about 284 of every 1,000 deals outright. A split pot comes up on 15.07% of boards, so the wins and the equity differ by half of that. In the ranking of all 169 starting hands, A9o is number 25 and A3s is number 38. **Boards behind the percentages: 61,642,944 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A9o | 34,813,000 | 9,291,000 | 17,539,000 | | A3s | 17,539,000 | 9,291,000 | 34,813,000 | 36 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 A3s 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 | 1.779 | 1.771 | 3.515 | 0.562 | | A3s | 0.562 | 3.515 | 1.771 | 1.779 | 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 The flop changes the picture. A9o does best on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better, at 67.98%, and worst on paired flops, at 60.60%. A9o stays ahead on all five textures. **A9o against A3s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | A9o wins | Ties | A3s wins | A9o equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 24.588 | 60.863 | 14.228 | 24.909 | 67.977 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 6.360 | 61.699 | 3.565 | 34.736 | 63.482 | | Two-tone | 46.527 | 57.969 | 11.318 | 30.713 | 63.628 | | Monotone | 5.192 | 55.386 | 10.708 | 33.906 | 60.740 | | Paired | 17.333 | 44.658 | 31.874 | 23.468 | 60.595 | 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 Each hand has a baseline against a random hand: 60.77% for A9o, 58.22% for A3s. Here the change is +3.24 and -22.23 points. **A9o and A3s 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 | 64.012 | 60.773 | +3.239 | 1.05330 | | A9o, rainbow, ten or higher | 67.977 | 60.773 | +7.204 | 1.11854 | | A9o, rainbow, nine or lower | 63.482 | 60.773 | +2.709 | 1.04458 | | A9o, two-tone | 63.628 | 60.773 | +2.855 | 1.04698 | | A9o, monotone | 60.740 | 60.773 | -0.033 | 0.99946 | | A9o, paired | 60.595 | 60.773 | -0.178 | 0.99707 | | A3s, all flops | 35.988 | 58.220 | -22.232 | 0.61814 | | A3s, rainbow, ten or higher | 32.023 | 58.220 | -26.197 | 0.55003 | | A3s, rainbow, nine or lower | 36.518 | 58.220 | -21.702 | 0.62724 | | A3s, two-tone | 36.372 | 58.220 | -21.848 | 0.62473 | | A3s, monotone | 39.260 | 58.220 | -18.960 | 0.67434 | | A3s, paired | 39.405 | 58.220 | -18.815 | 0.67683 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Suit overlap shows up in the numbers. With a suit in common A9o has 64.80% equity, and with none in common it has 63.62%. A9o does better with a shared suit, by 1.18 points. **A9o against A3s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | A9o wins | Ties | A3s wins | A9o equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 12 | 33.33 | 57.184 | 15.231 | 27.585 | 64.800 | | No shared suit | 24 | 66.67 | 56.123 | 14.992 | 28.885 | 63.619 | ## How often this matchup comes up Out of 1,624,350 ways to deal two seats two cards each, 36 are A9o in one seat and A3s in the other (0.0022%); with the seats swapped too, 72 (0.0044%). ## A worked example With $100 from each side, the $200 pot is split on average as $128.02 for A9o and $71.98 for A3s; the first side gains $28.02 per all-in and the second gives up $28.02. Scaled to 1,000 deals, that is roughly 565 wins for A9o, 284 for A3s and 151 chopped pots. ## The same matchup from the other side A3s against A9o adds nothing new: it is 35.99% for A3s and 64.01% for A9o, the same figures reversed. ## Keep exploring Try As9h against Ad3d 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 As9h against Ad3d in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=As9h&p2=Ad3d) - [A9o combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a9o.md) - [A3s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a3s.md) - [A9o vs QJo](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9o-vs-qjo.md) - [A9o vs K9o](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9o-vs-k9o.md) - [KJo vs A3s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kjo-vs-a3s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed We counted every case. Each suit pattern of the 36 specific A9o against A3s 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. ## Related - [A9o vs QJo: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9o-vs-qjo.md) - [A9o vs K9o: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9o-vs-k9o.md) - [KJo vs A3s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kjo-vs-a3s.md)