--- title: "A9s vs Q9s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-q9s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-q9s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "A9s is a big favorite over Q9s before the flop: 69.73% to 30.27% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-jts.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-a2s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ato-vs-q9s.md"] --- # A9s vs Q9s: preflop equity A9s is a big favorite over Q9s before the flop: 69.73% to 30.27% 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 69.73% of the pot and Q9s with 30.27%. ## A9s against Q9s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for A9s against Q9s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A9s | 68.785 | 1.887 | 29.328 | 69.728 | | Q9s | 29.328 | 1.887 | 68.785 | 30.272 | A9s meets Q9s, and both are suited hands. 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. A lead of 39.46 points is large but not decisive: Q9s still takes about 293 of every 1,000 deals. The tie share is 1.89%: on those boards the pot is chopped and neither hand wins outright. The hand ranking puts A9s at 18 and Q9s at 43 out of 169 starting hands. **Boards behind the percentages: 20,547,648 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A9s | 14,134,000 | 388,000 | 6,026,000 | | Q9s | 6,026,000 | 388,000 | 14,134,000 | 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 Q9s 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 | 2.303 | 1.454 | 3.410 | 0.434 | | Q9s | 0.434 | 3.410 | 1.454 | 2.303 | 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 Break the boards down by their first three cards and A9s is strongest on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) (83.01%) and weakest on monotone flops (63.08%). 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 Q9s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | A9s wins | Ties | Q9s wins | A9s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 24.595 | 67.124 | 1.342 | 31.534 | 67.795 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 6.314 | 81.154 | 3.712 | 15.134 | 83.010 | | Two-tone | 46.543 | 67.524 | 1.566 | 30.910 | 68.307 | | Monotone | 5.215 | 61.092 | 3.980 | 34.928 | 63.082 | | Paired | 17.333 | 72.337 | 2.225 | 25.438 | 73.450 | Flop types: rainbow means three different suits, two-tone means one suit twice, monotone means one suit three times, paired means a repeated rank. ## Compared with a random hand Relative to a random opponent, A9s changes by +6.95 points (baseline 62.78%) and Q9s by -27.39 points (baseline 57.66%). **A9s and Q9s 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 | 69.728 | 62.781 | +6.947 | 1.11065 | | A9s, rainbow, ten or higher | 67.795 | 62.781 | +5.014 | 1.07986 | | A9s, rainbow, nine or lower | 83.010 | 62.781 | +20.229 | 1.32222 | | A9s, two-tone | 68.307 | 62.781 | +5.526 | 1.08802 | | A9s, monotone | 63.082 | 62.781 | +0.301 | 1.00479 | | A9s, paired | 73.450 | 62.781 | +10.669 | 1.16994 | | Q9s, all flops | 30.272 | 57.664 | -27.392 | 0.52497 | | Q9s, rainbow, ten or higher | 32.205 | 57.664 | -25.459 | 0.55849 | | Q9s, rainbow, nine or lower | 16.990 | 57.664 | -40.674 | 0.29464 | | Q9s, two-tone | 31.693 | 57.664 | -25.971 | 0.54962 | | Q9s, monotone | 36.918 | 57.664 | -20.746 | 0.64023 | | Q9s, paired | 26.550 | 57.664 | -31.114 | 0.46043 | ## Does a shared suit matter? For this pair the shared-suit row is empty: the two hands cannot both own a card of one suit without reusing a card. **A9s against Q9s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | A9s wins | Ties | Q9s wins | A9s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 0 | 0.00 | not possible | not possible | not possible | not possible | | No shared suit | 12 | 100.00 | 68.785 | 1.887 | 29.328 | 69.728 | ## How often this matchup comes up Out of 1,624,350 ways to deal two seats two cards each, 12 are A9s in one seat and Q9s in the other (0.0007%); with the seats swapped too, 24 (0.0015%). ## A worked example Say each player puts $100 in before the flop, making a $200 pot. On average A9s takes back $139.46 of it, which is $39.46 more than it put in, and Q9s takes back $60.54, $39.46 less than it put in. Run 1,000 deals and the tally comes out near 688 for A9s, 293 for Q9s and 19 ties. ## The same matchup from the other side The mirror image, Q9s against A9s, is 30.27% to 69.73%, and its address redirects to this page. ## Keep exploring The calculator link fills in As9s against Qh9h, 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 Qh9h in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=As9s&p2=Qh9h) - [A9s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a9s.md) - [Q9s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/q9s.md) - [A9s vs JTs](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-jts.md) - [A9s vs A2s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-a2s.md) - [ATo vs Q9s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ato-vs-q9s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed This is an exact count with no sampling. For the 12 ways to deal one A9s and one Q9s without reusing a card, grouped by suit pattern, every one of the 1,712,304 possible boards is dealt and both seven-card hands are compared. A tie counts as half a win in the equity column, and each board is counted once under each of its ten three-card flops. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [A9s vs JTs: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-jts.md) - [A9s vs A2s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-a2s.md) - [ATo vs Q9s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ato-vs-q9s.md)