--- title: "A9s vs QTs: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-qts.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-qts" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "Who is ahead, A9s or QTs? A9s leads 56.42% to 43.58% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-a4s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-a3s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ato-vs-qts.md"] --- # A9s vs QTs: preflop equity Who is ahead, A9s or QTs? A9s leads 56.42% to 43.58% before the flop, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Dealt all in against each other, A9s takes 56.42% of the pot on average and QTs takes the other 43.58%. ## A9s against QTs: the numbers **Exact preflop results for A9s against QTs, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A9s | 56.178 | 0.488 | 43.334 | 56.422 | | QTs | 43.334 | 0.488 | 56.178 | 43.578 | The matchup is suited hands on both sides, A9s against QTs. Neither hand shares a rank with the other, so this is a contest of high cards, connection and suits. A 12.84 point lead is real, and QTs still takes about 433 of every 1,000 deals outright. The tie share is 0.49%: 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 QTs is number 34. **Boards behind the percentages: 27,396,864 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | A9s | 15,391,000 | 134,000 | 11,872,000 | | QTs | 11,872,000 | 134,000 | 15,391,000 | Exact total: 16 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 QTs 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 | 1.295 | 1.780 | 2.308 | 0.772 | | QTs | 0.772 | 2.308 | 1.780 | 1.295 | The final column gives the least the pot must offer for each unit called for a call to break even at this equity. ## Who is ahead on which flops A9s prefers low rainbow flops (nine high or lower), where it holds 72.47%, and likes rainbow flops topped by a ten or better least, where it holds 50.66%. 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 QTs by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | A9s wins | Ties | QTs wins | A9s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 23.867 | 50.588 | 0.143 | 49.269 | 50.660 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 7.042 | 72.093 | 0.745 | 27.162 | 72.466 | | Two-tone | 46.727 | 55.040 | 0.249 | 44.711 | 55.165 | | Monotone | 5.273 | 52.148 | 3.403 | 44.449 | 53.849 | | Paired | 17.091 | 61.778 | 0.620 | 37.602 | 62.088 | 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 A random hand would give A9s 62.78% and QTs 59.47%. Against each other the change is -6.36 points for A9s and -15.89 for QTs. **A9s and QTs 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 | 56.422 | 62.781 | -6.359 | 0.89871 | | A9s, rainbow, ten or higher | 50.660 | 62.781 | -12.121 | 0.80693 | | A9s, rainbow, nine or lower | 72.466 | 62.781 | +9.685 | 1.15427 | | A9s, two-tone | 55.165 | 62.781 | -7.616 | 0.87869 | | A9s, monotone | 53.849 | 62.781 | -8.932 | 0.85773 | | A9s, paired | 62.088 | 62.781 | -0.693 | 0.98896 | | QTs, all flops | 43.578 | 59.468 | -15.890 | 0.73280 | | QTs, rainbow, ten or higher | 49.340 | 59.468 | -10.128 | 0.82969 | | QTs, rainbow, nine or lower | 27.534 | 59.468 | -31.934 | 0.46301 | | QTs, two-tone | 44.835 | 59.468 | -14.633 | 0.75393 | | QTs, monotone | 46.151 | 59.468 | -13.317 | 0.77606 | | QTs, paired | 37.912 | 59.468 | -21.556 | 0.63752 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Split by suits, the deals give A9s 58.29% when the hands overlap in a suit and 55.80% when they do not. A9s does better with a shared suit, by 2.49 points. **A9s against QTs by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | A9s wins | Ties | QTs wins | A9s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 4 | 25.00 | 58.006 | 0.564 | 41.430 | 58.288 | | No shared suit | 12 | 75.00 | 55.568 | 0.463 | 43.969 | 55.800 | ## How often this matchup comes up How often does it happen? 16 of the 1,624,350 ordered deals (0.0010%) are A9s against QTs, and 32 (0.0020%) if either hand may sit in either seat. ## A worked example Worked example: both players commit $100, so $200 sits in the middle. Over every board, A9s' average share is $112.84 (a gain of $12.84) and QTs' is $87.16 (a loss of $12.84). Run 1,000 deals and the tally comes out near 562 for A9s, 433 for QTs and 5 ties. ## The same matchup from the other side If you came looking for QTs against A9s, the numbers are the same with the hands swapped: 43.58% and 56.42%. ## Keep exploring As9s against QhTh is a ready-made deal for the calculator, with no suit in common between the hands. The neighboring matchups below replace one hand with another of similar strength. - [Open As9s against QhTh in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=As9s&p2=QhTh) - [A9s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/a9s.md) - [QTs combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/qts.md) - [A9s vs A4s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-a4s.md) - [A9s vs A3s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-a3s.md) - [ATo vs QTs](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ato-vs-qts.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed Each figure is a complete count over boards. Take the 16 specific deals, group them by suit pattern, deal all 1,712,304 boards against each, and compare the two seven-card hands. Equity counts a tie as half a win; the flop rows use every one of a board's ten flops. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [A9s vs A4s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-a4s.md) - [A9s vs A3s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a9s-vs-a3s.md) - [ATo vs QTs: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ato-vs-qts.md)