--- title: "K9s vs 22: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/k9s-vs-22.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/k9s-vs-22" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "K9s vs 22 is close to a coin flip before the flop: 50.74% to 49.26% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/k9s-vs-97s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/k9s-vs-87s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a5s-vs-22.md"] --- # K9s vs 22: preflop equity K9s vs 22 is close to a coin flip before the flop: 50.74% to 49.26% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Before any board card is dealt, K9s holds 50.74% equity against 22, which leaves 22 with 49.26%. ## K9s against 22: the numbers **Exact preflop results for K9s against 22, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | K9s | 50.293 | 0.900 | 48.807 | 50.743 | | 22 | 48.807 | 0.900 | 50.293 | 49.257 | K9s and 22 are a suited hand and a pocket pair, in that order. One hand holds a pair and the other holds two cards that both outrank it, which keeps the equity closer than most people expect. This is close to even money, with K9s a little ahead. About 0.90% of boards chop the pot, which is why equity sits slightly above the win figure for both hands. Place 29 of 169 belongs to K9s and place 87 belongs to 22 in the ranking against a random hand. **Boards behind the percentages: 41,095,296 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | K9s | 20,668,000 | 370,000 | 20,057,000 | | 22 | 20,057,000 | 370,000 | 20,668,000 | The total is exact: 24 specific deals times 1,712,304 boards. The three counts are approximate, worked out from the percentages to five decimals and rounded to the nearest thousand. **K9s against 22 read as odds** | Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | K9s | 1.030 | 1.988 | 2.049 | 0.971 | | 22 | 0.971 | 2.049 | 1.988 | 1.030 | The last column is the smallest pot odds, written as a pot-to-call ratio, at which a call breaks even with this equity. ## Who is ahead on which flops Break the boards down by their first three cards and K9s is strongest on two-tone flops (51.52%) and weakest on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) (42.37%). 22 takes over on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower), so the favorite before the flop is the underdog on those boards. **K9s against 22 by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | K9s wins | Ties | 22 wins | K9s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.220 | 50.773 | 0.411 | 48.816 | 50.979 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.689 | 41.836 | 1.070 | 57.094 | 42.371 | | Two-tone | 46.545 | 51.270 | 0.497 | 48.233 | 51.519 | | Monotone | 5.212 | 48.690 | 3.844 | 47.466 | 50.612 | | Paired | 17.334 | 50.227 | 1.753 | 48.020 | 51.103 | 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 Compared with a random opponent, this matchup shifts K9s from 59.99% by -9.25 points and 22 from 50.33% by -1.07 points. **K9s and 22 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | K9s, all flops | 50.743 | 59.988 | -9.245 | 0.84589 | | K9s, rainbow, ten or higher | 50.979 | 59.988 | -9.009 | 0.84982 | | K9s, rainbow, nine or lower | 42.371 | 59.988 | -17.617 | 0.70632 | | K9s, two-tone | 51.519 | 59.988 | -8.469 | 0.85882 | | K9s, monotone | 50.612 | 59.988 | -9.376 | 0.84370 | | K9s, paired | 51.103 | 59.988 | -8.885 | 0.85189 | | 22, all flops | 49.257 | 50.334 | -1.077 | 0.97860 | | 22, rainbow, ten or higher | 49.021 | 50.334 | -1.313 | 0.97391 | | 22, rainbow, nine or lower | 57.629 | 50.334 | +7.295 | 1.14493 | | 22, two-tone | 48.481 | 50.334 | -1.853 | 0.96319 | | 22, monotone | 49.388 | 50.334 | -0.946 | 0.98121 | | 22, paired | 48.897 | 50.334 | -1.437 | 0.97145 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Two kinds of deal exist here. In 12 of them the hands share a suit and K9s holds 50.55%. In 12 they do not, and it holds 50.93%. K9s does better with no shared suit, by 0.38 points. **K9s against 22 by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | K9s wins | Ties | 22 wins | K9s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 12 | 50.00 | 50.094 | 0.920 | 48.986 | 50.554 | | No shared suit | 12 | 50.00 | 50.492 | 0.880 | 48.628 | 50.932 | ## How often this matchup comes up How often does it happen? 24 of the 1,624,350 ordered deals (0.0015%) are K9s against 22, and 48 (0.0030%) if either hand may sit in either seat. ## A worked example A $100 all-in from each player makes a $200 pot, and the exact equity says K9s gets $101.48 of it on average and 22 gets $98.52. Out of 1,000 deals you should see around 503 outright wins for K9s, 488 for 22, and 9 split pots. ## The same matchup from the other side 22 against K9s adds nothing new: it is 49.26% for 22 and 50.74% for K9s, the same figures reversed. ## Keep exploring Ks9s against 2h2d 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 Ks9s against 2h2d in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=Ks9s&p2=2h2d) - [K9s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/k9s.md) - [22 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/22.md) - [K9s vs 97s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/k9s-vs-97s.md) - [K9s vs 87s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/k9s-vs-87s.md) - [A5s vs 22](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a5s-vs-22.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 24 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 - [K9s vs 97s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/k9s-vs-97s.md) - [K9s vs 87s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/k9s-vs-87s.md) - [A5s vs 22: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a5s-vs-22.md)