--- title: "A9s vs A3s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-a3s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-a3s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "A9s is a big favorite over A3s before the flop: 65.61% to 34.39% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-qjo.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-k9o.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ato-vs-a3s.md"] --- # A9s vs A3s: preflop equity A9s is a big favorite over A3s before the flop: 65.61% to 34.39% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Dealt all in against each other, A9s takes 65.61% of the pot on average and A3s takes the other 34.39%. ## A9s against A3s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for A9s against A3s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A9s | 58.485 | 14.250 | 27.265 | 65.610 | | A3s | 27.265 | 14.250 | 58.485 | 34.390 | This is a contest between two suited hands, A9s and A3s. The two hands share a rank, and the one with the better other card dominates: it wins most kicker battles when that shared rank hits. That is a clear edge, 65.61% to 34.39%, but A3s still wins often enough that one hand proves nothing. Ties are part of the picture: 14.25% of boards end in a split pot, and each side counts that as half a win. Place 18 of 169 belongs to A9s and place 38 belongs to A3s in the ranking against a random hand. **Boards behind the percentages: 20,547,648 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A9s | 12,017,000 | 2,928,000 | 5,602,000 | | A3s | 5,602,000 | 2,928,000 | 12,017,000 | Exact total: 12 deals times 1,712,304 boards. The other three counts come from the five-decimal percentages and are rounded to the nearest thousand, so read them as approximate. **A9s 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) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A9s | 1.908 | 1.710 | 3.668 | 0.524 | | A3s | 0.524 | 3.668 | 1.710 | 1.908 | 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 If you know the kind of flop that came, the numbers shift: A9s holds 68.89% on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better and 61.29% on monotone flops. A9s stays ahead on all five textures. **A9s against A3s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | A9s wins | Ties | A3s wins | A9s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 24.526 | 61.975 | 13.829 | 24.196 | 68.890 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 6.383 | 63.019 | 3.407 | 33.574 | 64.723 | | Two-tone | 46.543 | 60.467 | 10.480 | 29.053 | 65.707 | | Monotone | 5.215 | 56.030 | 10.517 | 33.453 | 61.289 | | Paired | 17.333 | 47.295 | 30.082 | 22.623 | 62.336 | Read the flop types this way: rainbow has three suits, two-tone has two cards of one suit, monotone has three, and paired repeats a rank. ## Compared with a random hand Against one random hand instead, A9s holds 62.78% and A3s holds 58.22%. Facing each other changes that by +2.83 points for A9s and -23.83 points for A3s. **A9s 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A9s, all flops | 65.610 | 62.781 | +2.829 | 1.04506 | | A9s, rainbow, ten or higher | 68.890 | 62.781 | +6.109 | 1.09731 | | A9s, rainbow, nine or lower | 64.723 | 62.781 | +1.942 | 1.03093 | | A9s, two-tone | 65.707 | 62.781 | +2.926 | 1.04661 | | A9s, monotone | 61.289 | 62.781 | -1.492 | 0.97623 | | A9s, paired | 62.336 | 62.781 | -0.445 | 0.99291 | | A3s, all flops | 34.390 | 58.220 | -23.830 | 0.59069 | | A3s, rainbow, ten or higher | 31.110 | 58.220 | -27.110 | 0.53435 | | A3s, rainbow, nine or lower | 35.277 | 58.220 | -22.943 | 0.60593 | | A3s, two-tone | 34.293 | 58.220 | -23.927 | 0.58902 | | A3s, monotone | 38.711 | 58.220 | -19.509 | 0.66491 | | A3s, paired | 37.664 | 58.220 | -20.556 | 0.64693 | ## Does a shared suit matter? There is no shared-suit case for this pair, since the cards they would need are already in the other hand. Every deal is a no-shared-suit deal. **A9s against A3s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | A9s wins | Ties | A3s wins | A9s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 0 | 0.00 | not possible | not possible | not possible | not possible | | No shared suit | 12 | 100.00 | 58.485 | 14.250 | 27.265 | 65.610 | ## How often this matchup comes up Exactly 12 specific deals fit this matchup in one seat order, which is 0.0007% of 1,624,350; both orders together give 24, or 0.0015%. ## A worked example Worked example: both players commit $100, so $200 sits in the middle. Over every board, A9s' average share is $131.22 (a gain of $31.22) and A3s' is $68.78 (a loss of $31.22). Scaled to 1,000 deals, that is roughly 585 wins for A9s, 273 for A3s and 142 chopped pots. ## The same matchup from the other side One page covers both views. From A3s' side the equity is 34.39%, and from A9s' side it is 65.61%. ## Keep exploring Open the calculator with As9s against Ah3h 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 Ah3h in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=As9s&p2=Ah3h) - [A9s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a9s.md) - [A3s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a3s.md) - [A9s vs QJo](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-qjo.md) - [A9s vs K9o](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-k9o.md) - [ATo vs A3s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ato-vs-a3s.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 QJo: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-qjo.md) - [A9s vs K9o: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-k9o.md) - [ATo vs A3s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ato-vs-a3s.md)