--- title: "A9s vs 43s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-43s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-43s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "A9s is a big favorite over 43s before the flop: 63.05% to 36.95% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ato-vs-43s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-53s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/66-vs-43s.md"] --- # A9s vs 43s: preflop equity A9s is a big favorite over 43s before the flop: 63.05% to 36.95% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Over all 1,712,304 boards that can follow this deal, A9s finishes with 63.05% of the pot and 43s with 36.95%. ## A9s against 43s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for A9s against 43s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A9s | 62.765 | 0.570 | 36.665 | 63.050 | | 43s | 36.665 | 0.570 | 62.765 | 36.950 | Both hands are suited hands: A9s and 43s. With no overlap in ranks, every card that pairs one hand is a card that does not pair the other. A9s is ahead, but 43s is far from dead: it takes 366 of every 1,000 deals outright. Split pots make up 0.57% of the boards, and both equity figures count them as half a win each. Place 18 of 169 belongs to A9s and place 150 belongs to 43s in the ranking against a random hand. **Boards behind the percentages: 27,396,864 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A9s | 17,196,000 | 156,000 | 10,045,000 | | 43s | 10,045,000 | 156,000 | 17,196,000 | 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. **A9s against 43s read as odds** | Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A9s | 1.706 | 1.593 | 2.727 | 0.586 | | 43s | 0.586 | 2.727 | 1.593 | 1.706 | 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 A9s prefers rainbow flops topped by a ten or better, where it holds 66.13%, and likes low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) least, where it holds 50.04%. A9s stays ahead on all five textures, but the swing between them is large, so how the flop looks matters a great deal. **A9s against 43s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | A9s wins | Ties | 43s wins | A9s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.220 | 66.012 | 0.239 | 33.749 | 66.132 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.689 | 49.597 | 0.880 | 49.523 | 50.037 | | Two-tone | 46.727 | 62.043 | 0.322 | 37.635 | 62.204 | | Monotone | 5.273 | 58.236 | 3.654 | 38.110 | 60.063 | | Paired | 17.091 | 65.726 | 0.682 | 33.592 | 66.067 | 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 Against one random hand instead, A9s holds 62.78% and 43s holds 38.64%. Facing each other changes that by +0.27 points for A9s and -1.69 points for 43s. **A9s and 43s 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A9s, all flops | 63.050 | 62.781 | +0.269 | 1.00428 | | A9s, rainbow, ten or higher | 66.132 | 62.781 | +3.351 | 1.05338 | | A9s, rainbow, nine or lower | 50.037 | 62.781 | -12.744 | 0.79701 | | A9s, two-tone | 62.204 | 62.781 | -0.577 | 0.99081 | | A9s, monotone | 60.063 | 62.781 | -2.718 | 0.95671 | | A9s, paired | 66.067 | 62.781 | +3.286 | 1.05234 | | 43s, all flops | 36.950 | 38.642 | -1.692 | 0.95621 | | 43s, rainbow, ten or higher | 33.868 | 38.642 | -4.774 | 0.87646 | | 43s, rainbow, nine or lower | 49.963 | 38.642 | +11.321 | 1.29297 | | 43s, two-tone | 37.796 | 38.642 | -0.846 | 0.97811 | | 43s, monotone | 39.937 | 38.642 | +1.295 | 1.03351 | | 43s, paired | 33.933 | 38.642 | -4.709 | 0.87814 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Two kinds of deal exist here. In 4 of them the hands share a suit and A9s holds 65.38%. In 12 they do not, and it holds 62.27%. A9s does better with a shared suit, by 3.11 points. **A9s against 43s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | A9s wins | Ties | 43s wins | A9s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 4 | 25.00 | 65.061 | 0.645 | 34.294 | 65.383 | | No shared suit | 12 | 75.00 | 61.999 | 0.545 | 37.456 | 62.272 | ## How often this matchup comes up How often does it happen? 16 of the 1,624,350 ordered deals (0.0010%) are A9s against 43s, and 32 (0.0020%) if either hand may sit in either seat. ## A worked example Worked example: both players commit $100, so $200 sits in the middle. Over every board, A9s' average share is $126.10 (a gain of $26.10) and 43s' is $73.90 (a loss of $26.10). A thousand deals look like this: A9s takes 628, 43s takes 366, 6 are ties. ## The same matchup from the other side 43s versus A9s is this same page seen from the other hand: 36.95% for 43s, 63.05% for A9s. ## Keep exploring Open the calculator with As9s against 4h3h already entered, a deal with no shared suit, and change any card to try your own hand. The matchups after it each swap one hand for a nearby one in the ranking. - [Open As9s against 4h3h in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=As9s&p2=4h3h) - [A9s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a9s.md) - [43s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/43s.md) - [ATo vs 43s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ato-vs-43s.md) - [A9s vs 53s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-53s.md) - [66 vs 43s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/66-vs-43s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed All 1,712,304 five-card boards are dealt for every suit pattern among the 16 specific deals of A9s against 43s, and both hands are scored on each. That is a full count, so the percentages are exact. Ties are half a win each, and each board appears once per flop it contains. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [ATo vs 43s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ato-vs-43s.md) - [A9s vs 53s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-53s.md) - [66 vs 43s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/66-vs-43s.md)