--- title: "A9s vs A5s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-a5s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-a5s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "A9s is a big favorite over A5s before the flop: 65.08% to 34.92% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-a6s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-kto.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ato-vs-a5s.md"] --- # A9s vs A5s: preflop equity A9s is a big favorite over A5s before the flop: 65.08% to 34.92% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Counting every board, the equity split is 65.08% for A9s and 34.92% for A5s, so A9s leads by 30.16 points. ## A9s against A5s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for A9s against A5s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A9s | 58.038 | 14.087 | 27.875 | 65.081 | | A5s | 27.875 | 14.087 | 58.038 | 34.919 | The matchup is suited hands on both sides, A9s against A5s. 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 lead of 30.16 points is large but not decisive: A5s still takes about 279 of every 1,000 deals. Of every 100 boards, about 14.09 are split pots, and the equity figures already include them. A9s ranks number 18 of 169 starting hands, and A5s ranks number 30, by equity 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 | 11,925,000 | 2,895,000 | 5,728,000 | | A5s | 5,728,000 | 2,895,000 | 11,925,000 | 12 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 A5s 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 | 1.864 | 1.723 | 3.587 | 0.537 | | A5s | 0.537 | 3.587 | 1.723 | 1.864 | 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 Split by what the flop looks like, A9s peaks at 68.61% on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better and bottoms out at 60.91% on monotone flops. A9s stays ahead on all five textures. **A9s against A5s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | A9s wins | Ties | A5s wins | A9s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 24.526 | 61.743 | 13.731 | 24.526 | 68.608 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 6.383 | 61.301 | 3.252 | 35.447 | 62.927 | | Two-tone | 46.543 | 60.001 | 10.374 | 29.625 | 65.188 | | Monotone | 5.215 | 55.698 | 10.421 | 33.881 | 60.908 | | Paired | 17.333 | 47.027 | 29.655 | 23.318 | 61.855 | 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 A5s holds 59.92%. Facing each other changes that by +2.30 points for A9s and -25.00 points for A5s. **A9s and A5s 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 | 65.081 | 62.781 | +2.300 | 1.03664 | | A9s, rainbow, ten or higher | 68.608 | 62.781 | +5.827 | 1.09281 | | A9s, rainbow, nine or lower | 62.927 | 62.781 | +0.146 | 1.00233 | | A9s, two-tone | 65.188 | 62.781 | +2.407 | 1.03834 | | A9s, monotone | 60.908 | 62.781 | -1.873 | 0.97017 | | A9s, paired | 61.855 | 62.781 | -0.926 | 0.98525 | | A5s, all flops | 34.919 | 59.923 | -25.004 | 0.58273 | | A5s, rainbow, ten or higher | 31.392 | 59.923 | -28.531 | 0.52387 | | A5s, rainbow, nine or lower | 37.073 | 59.923 | -22.850 | 0.61868 | | A5s, two-tone | 34.812 | 59.923 | -25.111 | 0.58095 | | A5s, monotone | 39.092 | 59.923 | -20.831 | 0.65237 | | A5s, paired | 38.145 | 59.923 | -21.778 | 0.63657 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Suits do not split this matchup, because no legal deal has the hands holding the same suit. **A9s against A5s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | A9s wins | Ties | A5s wins | A9s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 0 | 0.00 | not possible | not possible | not possible | not possible | | No shared suit | 12 | 100.00 | 58.038 | 14.087 | 27.875 | 65.081 | ## How often this matchup comes up How often does it happen? 12 of the 1,624,350 ordered deals (0.0007%) are A9s against A5s, and 24 (0.0015%) if either hand may sit in either seat. ## A worked example Take a $200 pot built from $100 each. A9s' equity of 65.08% is worth $130.16, a $30.16 edge, and A5s' 34.92% is worth $69.84, which is $30.16 under its stake. A thousand deals look like this: A9s takes 580, A5s takes 279, 141 are ties. ## The same matchup from the other side Swap the hands and you get A5s with 34.92% against A9s with 65.08%. We keep one page per matchup, with the better-ranked hand first. ## Keep exploring Open the calculator with As9s against Ah5h 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 Ah5h in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=As9s&p2=Ah5h) - [A9s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a9s.md) - [A5s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a5s.md) - [A9s vs A6s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-a6s.md) - [A9s vs KTo](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-kto.md) - [ATo vs A5s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ato-vs-a5s.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 A6s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-a6s.md) - [A9s vs KTo: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-kto.md) - [ATo vs A5s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ato-vs-a5s.md)