--- title: "AKo vs Q9s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ako-vs-q9s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ako-vs-q9s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "AKo is a big favorite over Q9s before the flop: 62.00% to 38.00% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ako-vs-jts.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ako-vs-a2s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ats-vs-q9s.md"] --- # AKo vs Q9s: preflop equity AKo is a big favorite over Q9s before the flop: 62.00% to 38.00% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Before any board card is dealt, AKo holds 62.00% equity against Q9s, which leaves Q9s with 38.00%. ## AKo against Q9s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for AKo against Q9s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AKo | 61.766 | 0.467 | 37.767 | 62.000 | | Q9s | 37.767 | 0.467 | 61.766 | 38.000 | Here an offsuit hand (AKo) meets a suited hand (Q9s). Neither hand shares a rank with the other, so this is a contest of high cards, connection and suits. That is a modest edge, the kind that shows up over many hands and is easy to miss in one. Ties are part of the picture: 0.47% of boards end in a split pot, and each side counts that as half a win. Among the 169 starting hands, AKo is number 12 and Q9s is number 43 by strength against a random hand. **Boards behind the percentages: 82,190,592 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AKo | 50,766,000 | 384,000 | 31,041,000 | | Q9s | 31,041,000 | 384,000 | 50,766,000 | The board total is exact, 48 deals at 1,712,304 boards each. Won, tied and lost counts are rounded to the nearest thousand from the five-decimal percentages. **AKo 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) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AKo | 1.632 | 1.619 | 2.648 | 0.613 | | Q9s | 0.613 | 2.648 | 1.619 | 1.632 | 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 The flop changes the picture. AKo does best on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better, at 65.61%, and worst on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower), at 56.15%. AKo stays ahead on all five textures. **AKo against Q9s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | AKo wins | Ties | Q9s wins | AKo equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 23.988 | 65.548 | 0.120 | 34.332 | 65.608 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 7.042 | 55.642 | 1.024 | 43.334 | 56.154 | | Two-tone | 46.667 | 60.337 | 0.295 | 39.368 | 60.484 | | Monotone | 5.212 | 58.645 | 2.385 | 38.970 | 59.837 | | Paired | 17.091 | 63.838 | 0.608 | 35.554 | 64.142 | 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 Start from the random-hand figures, 65.32% for AKo and 57.66% for Q9s. This opponent changes them by -3.32 and -19.66 points. **AKo 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AKo, all flops | 62.000 | 65.320 | -3.320 | 0.94917 | | AKo, rainbow, ten or higher | 65.608 | 65.320 | +0.288 | 1.00441 | | AKo, rainbow, nine or lower | 56.154 | 65.320 | -9.166 | 0.85968 | | AKo, two-tone | 60.484 | 65.320 | -4.836 | 0.92596 | | AKo, monotone | 59.837 | 65.320 | -5.483 | 0.91606 | | AKo, paired | 64.142 | 65.320 | -1.178 | 0.98197 | | Q9s, all flops | 38.000 | 57.664 | -19.664 | 0.65899 | | Q9s, rainbow, ten or higher | 34.392 | 57.664 | -23.272 | 0.59642 | | Q9s, rainbow, nine or lower | 43.846 | 57.664 | -13.818 | 0.76037 | | Q9s, two-tone | 39.516 | 57.664 | -18.148 | 0.68528 | | Q9s, monotone | 40.163 | 57.664 | -17.501 | 0.69650 | | Q9s, paired | 35.858 | 57.664 | -21.806 | 0.62184 | ## Does a shared suit matter? The suit split reads 62.73% for AKo with a shared suit and 61.27% without one. AKo does better with a shared suit, by 1.46 points. **AKo against Q9s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | AKo wins | Ties | Q9s wins | AKo equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 24 | 50.00 | 62.477 | 0.508 | 37.015 | 62.731 | | No shared suit | 24 | 50.00 | 61.056 | 0.426 | 38.518 | 61.269 | ## How often this matchup comes up Counting specific cards, AKo against Q9s appears in 48 of the 1,624,350 ordered heads-up deals (0.0030%), and in 96 when the seats are swapped too (0.0059%). ## A worked example Try it with money: two players each put in $100 and the whole board runs out every possible way. AKo averages $124.00 from the $200, up $24.00; Q9s averages $76.00, down $24.00. Over a long run, 1,000 deals split into about 617 for AKo, 378 for Q9s and 5 tied. ## The same matchup from the other side If you came looking for Q9s against AKo, the numbers are the same with the hands swapped: 38.00% and 62.00%. ## Keep exploring AsKh against Qd9d 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 AsKh against Qd9d in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=AsKh&p2=Qd9d) - [AKo combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/ako.md) - [Q9s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/q9s.md) - [AKo vs JTs](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ako-vs-jts.md) - [AKo vs A2s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ako-vs-a2s.md) - [ATs vs Q9s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ats-vs-q9s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed Each figure is a complete count over boards. Take the 48 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 - [AKo vs JTs: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ako-vs-jts.md) - [AKo vs A2s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ako-vs-a2s.md) - [ATs vs Q9s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/ats-vs-q9s.md)