---
title: "A9s vs 97s: preflop equity"
url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-97s.md"
canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-97s"
last_updated: "2026-10-23"
type: "reference"
summary: "A9s is a big favorite over 97s before the flop: 68.73% to 31.27% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit."
related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-87s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-86s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ato-vs-97s.md"]
---

# A9s vs 97s: preflop equity

A9s is a big favorite over 97s before the flop: 68.73% to 31.27% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit.

Before any board card is dealt, A9s holds 68.73% equity against 97s, which leaves 97s with 31.27%.

## A9s against 97s: the numbers

**Exact preflop results for A9s against 97s, in percent**

| Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| A9s | 67.681 | 2.104 | 30.215 | 68.733 |
| 97s | 30.215 | 2.104 | 67.681 | 31.267 |

Here suited hands face each other, A9s on one side and 97s on the other. Because the hands share one rank, the one with the higher kicker is ahead when that rank pairs and the other hand is mostly drawing.

A9s is the clear favorite, though 97s gets there on roughly one board in 3. The tie share is 2.10%: on those boards the pot is chopped and neither hand wins outright.

In the ranking of all 169 starting hands, A9s is number 18 and 97s is number 94.

**Boards behind the percentages: 20,547,648 counted in all**

| Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| A9s | 13,907,000 | 432,000 | 6,208,000 |
| 97s | 6,208,000 | 432,000 | 13,907,000 |

The total is exact: 12 specific deals times 1,712,304 boards. The three counts are approximate, worked out from the percentages to five decimals and rounded to the nearest thousand.

**A9s against 97s 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 | 2.198 | 1.478 | 3.310 | 0.455 |
| 97s | 0.455 | 3.310 | 1.478 | 2.198 |

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

By flop texture, A9s' equity runs from 54.56% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) up to 73.36% on paired flops. 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 97s by flop texture, in percent**

| Flop | Share of flops | A9s wins | Ties | 97s wins | A9s equity |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.254 | 71.958 | 1.836 | 26.206 | 72.876 |
| Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.654 | 53.035 | 3.057 | 43.908 | 54.564 |
| Two-tone | 46.543 | 66.291 | 1.792 | 31.917 | 67.187 |
| Monotone | 5.215 | 60.357 | 4.191 | 35.452 | 62.452 |
| Paired | 17.334 | 72.161 | 2.392 | 25.447 | 73.357 |

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

Compared with a random opponent, this matchup shifts A9s from 62.78% by +5.95 points and 97s from 49.12% by -17.85 points.

**A9s and 97s 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 | 68.733 | 62.781 | +5.952 | 1.09481 |
| A9s, rainbow, ten or higher | 72.876 | 62.781 | +10.095 | 1.16080 |
| A9s, rainbow, nine or lower | 54.564 | 62.781 | -8.217 | 0.86912 |
| A9s, two-tone | 67.187 | 62.781 | +4.406 | 1.07018 |
| A9s, monotone | 62.452 | 62.781 | -0.329 | 0.99476 |
| A9s, paired | 73.357 | 62.781 | +10.576 | 1.16846 |
| 97s, all flops | 31.267 | 49.118 | -17.851 | 0.63657 |
| 97s, rainbow, ten or higher | 27.124 | 49.118 | -21.994 | 0.55222 |
| 97s, rainbow, nine or lower | 45.436 | 49.118 | -3.682 | 0.92504 |
| 97s, two-tone | 32.813 | 49.118 | -16.305 | 0.66804 |
| 97s, monotone | 37.548 | 49.118 | -11.570 | 0.76444 |
| 97s, paired | 26.643 | 49.118 | -22.475 | 0.54243 |

## Does a shared suit matter?

A9s and 97s never overlap in suit in a legal deal, so the whole matchup sits in the no-shared-suit row.

**A9s against 97s by suit overlap, in percent**

| Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | A9s wins | Ties | 97s wins | A9s equity |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Share a suit | 0 | 0.00 | not possible | not possible | not possible | not possible |
| No shared suit | 12 | 100.00 | 67.681 | 2.104 | 30.215 | 68.733 |

## How often this matchup comes up

A9s against 97s is made up of 12 specific-card matchups in one seat order, 0.0007% of the 1,624,350 ordered deals, and 24 counting both seat orders, 0.0015%.

## A worked example

Try it with money: two players each put in $100 and the whole board runs out every possible way. A9s averages $137.46 from the $200, up $37.46; 97s averages $62.54, down $37.46.

In 1,000 deals of exactly this matchup, expect about 677 won outright by A9s, about 302 won outright by 97s and about 21 split.

## The same matchup from the other side

97s versus A9s is this same page seen from the other hand: 31.27% for 97s, 68.73% for A9s.

## Keep exploring

The calculator link fills in As9s against 9h7h, 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 As9s against 9h7h in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=As9s&p2=9h7h)
- [A9s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a9s.md)
- [97s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/97s.md)
- [A9s vs 87s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-87s.md)
- [A9s vs 86s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-86s.md)
- [ATo vs 97s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ato-vs-97s.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 12 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

- [A9s vs 87s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-87s.md)
- [A9s vs 86s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-86s.md)
- [ATo vs 97s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ato-vs-97s.md)