--- title: "A9s vs KQo: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-kqo.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-kqo" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "A9s is a big favorite over KQo before the flop: 60.25% to 39.75% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-a7s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-a9o.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ato-vs-kqo.md"] --- # A9s vs KQo: preflop equity A9s is a big favorite over KQo before the flop: 60.25% to 39.75% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. If A9s and KQo get all the chips in before the flop, A9s owns 60.25% of the pot in the long run and KQo owns 39.75%. ## A9s against KQo: the numbers **Exact preflop results for A9s against KQo, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A9s | 60.020 | 0.469 | 39.511 | 60.254 | | KQo | 39.511 | 0.469 | 60.020 | 39.746 | Here a suited hand (A9s) meets an offsuit hand (KQo). With no overlap in ranks, every card that pairs one hand is a card that does not pair the other. That is a modest edge, the kind that shows up over many hands and is easy to miss in one. 0.47% of boards are ties, so the equity of each hand is its win rate plus half of that. In the ranking of all 169 starting hands, A9s is number 18 and KQo is number 23. **Boards behind the percentages: 82,190,592 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A9s | 49,331,000 | 385,000 | 32,474,000 | | KQo | 32,474,000 | 385,000 | 49,331,000 | Exact total: 48 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 KQo 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 | 1.516 | 1.666 | 2.531 | 0.660 | | KQo | 0.660 | 2.531 | 1.666 | 1.516 | 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 77.37% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) and bottoms out at 52.84% on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better. 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 KQo by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | A9s wins | Ties | KQo wins | A9s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 23.988 | 52.780 | 0.121 | 47.099 | 52.841 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 7.042 | 76.858 | 1.028 | 22.114 | 77.372 | | Two-tone | 46.667 | 59.774 | 0.298 | 39.928 | 59.923 | | Monotone | 5.212 | 55.509 | 2.387 | 42.104 | 56.703 | | Paired | 17.091 | 65.290 | 0.608 | 34.102 | 65.594 | A rainbow flop shows three suits, a two-tone flop repeats one suit, a monotone flop is a single suit, and a paired flop repeats a rank. ## Compared with a random hand Compared with a random opponent, this matchup shifts A9s from 62.78% by -2.53 points and KQo from 61.46% by -21.71 points. **A9s and KQo 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 | 60.254 | 62.781 | -2.527 | 0.95975 | | A9s, rainbow, ten or higher | 52.841 | 62.781 | -9.940 | 0.84167 | | A9s, rainbow, nine or lower | 77.372 | 62.781 | +14.591 | 1.23241 | | A9s, two-tone | 59.923 | 62.781 | -2.858 | 0.95448 | | A9s, monotone | 56.703 | 62.781 | -6.078 | 0.90319 | | A9s, paired | 65.594 | 62.781 | +2.813 | 1.04481 | | KQo, all flops | 39.746 | 61.456 | -21.710 | 0.64674 | | KQo, rainbow, ten or higher | 47.159 | 61.456 | -14.297 | 0.76736 | | KQo, rainbow, nine or lower | 22.628 | 61.456 | -38.828 | 0.36820 | | KQo, two-tone | 40.077 | 61.456 | -21.379 | 0.65213 | | KQo, monotone | 43.297 | 61.456 | -18.159 | 0.70452 | | KQo, paired | 34.406 | 61.456 | -27.050 | 0.55985 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Looking only at deals where the hands share a suit, A9s has 59.92%; looking only at deals where they do not, 60.59%. A9s does better with no shared suit, by 0.67 points. **A9s against KQo by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | A9s wins | Ties | KQo wins | A9s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 24 | 50.00 | 59.661 | 0.509 | 39.830 | 59.915 | | No shared suit | 24 | 50.00 | 60.378 | 0.429 | 39.193 | 60.593 | ## How often this matchup comes up You will meet this exact matchup 0.0059% of the time in a random heads-up deal: 96 of 1,624,350, counting either seat order. ## A worked example To see what the equity is worth, imagine $100 each in a $200 pot. A9s is worth $120.50 on average (+$20.50); KQo is worth $79.50 (-$20.50). Out of 1,000 deals you should see around 600 outright wins for A9s, 395 for KQo, and 5 split pots. ## The same matchup from the other side If you came looking for KQo against A9s, the numbers are the same with the hands swapped: 39.75% and 60.25%. ## Keep exploring Try As9s against KhQd 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 As9s against KhQd in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=As9s&p2=KhQd) - [A9s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a9s.md) - [KQo combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/kqo.md) - [A9s vs A7s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-a7s.md) - [A9s vs A9o](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-a9o.md) - [ATo vs KQo](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ato-vs-kqo.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed Method: exact enumeration. The 48 specific deals are grouped by suit pattern, each is run against all 1,712,304 boards, and both seven-card hands are scored. Equity adds half of every tie, and flop textures are tallied over the ten flops inside each board. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [A9s vs A7s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-a7s.md) - [A9s vs A9o: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-a9o.md) - [ATo vs KQo: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ato-vs-kqo.md)