--- title: "K9s vs 87s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/k9s-vs-87s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/k9s-vs-87s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "K9s is a big favorite over 87s before the flop: 61.74% to 38.26% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/k9s-vs-86s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/k9s-vs-76s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a5s-vs-87s.md"] --- # K9s vs 87s: preflop equity K9s is a big favorite over 87s before the flop: 61.74% to 38.26% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. If K9s and 87s get all the chips in before the flop, K9s owns 61.74% of the pot in the long run and 87s owns 38.26%. ## K9s against 87s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for K9s against 87s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | K9s | 61.397 | 0.679 | 37.924 | 61.736 | | 87s | 37.924 | 0.679 | 61.397 | 38.264 | Here suited hands face each other, K9s on one side and 87s on the other. The two hands share no rank, which makes this a pure matchup of card strength, straight chances and flush chances. That is a modest edge, the kind that shows up over many hands and is easy to miss in one. The tie share is 0.68%: on those boards the pot is chopped and neither hand wins outright. By strength against a random hand, K9s holds place 29 of 169 and 87s holds place 100. **Boards behind the percentages: 27,396,864 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | K9s | 16,821,000 | 186,000 | 10,390,000 | | 87s | 10,390,000 | 186,000 | 16,821,000 | 16 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. **K9s against 87s 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 | 1.613 | 1.629 | 2.637 | 0.620 | | 87s | 0.620 | 2.637 | 1.629 | 1.613 | The last column is the break-even price: the pot odds a call needs to offer, as a ratio of pot to call. ## Who is ahead on which flops Break the boards down by their first three cards and K9s is strongest on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better (65.26%) and weakest on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) (46.67%). Low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) favor 87s, the hand that is behind overall. **K9s against 87s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | K9s wins | Ties | 87s wins | K9s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.220 | 65.092 | 0.343 | 34.565 | 65.263 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.689 | 46.485 | 0.373 | 53.142 | 46.671 | | Two-tone | 46.727 | 60.818 | 0.320 | 38.862 | 60.978 | | Monotone | 5.273 | 57.221 | 3.456 | 39.323 | 58.949 | | Paired | 17.091 | 63.781 | 1.400 | 34.819 | 64.481 | Read the flop types this way: rainbow has three suits, two-tone has two cards of one suit, monotone has three, and paired repeats a rank. ## Compared with a random hand Start from the random-hand figures, 59.99% for K9s and 47.94% for 87s. This opponent changes them by +1.75 and -9.68 points. **K9s and 87s 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 | 61.736 | 59.988 | +1.748 | 1.02914 | | K9s, rainbow, ten or higher | 65.263 | 59.988 | +5.275 | 1.08793 | | K9s, rainbow, nine or lower | 46.671 | 59.988 | -13.317 | 0.77801 | | K9s, two-tone | 60.978 | 59.988 | +0.990 | 1.01650 | | K9s, monotone | 58.949 | 59.988 | -1.039 | 0.98268 | | K9s, paired | 64.481 | 59.988 | +4.493 | 1.07490 | | 87s, all flops | 38.264 | 47.936 | -9.672 | 0.79823 | | 87s, rainbow, ten or higher | 34.737 | 47.936 | -13.199 | 0.72465 | | 87s, rainbow, nine or lower | 53.329 | 47.936 | +5.393 | 1.11250 | | 87s, two-tone | 39.022 | 47.936 | -8.914 | 0.81404 | | 87s, monotone | 41.051 | 47.936 | -6.885 | 0.85637 | | 87s, paired | 35.519 | 47.936 | -12.417 | 0.74097 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Of the deals of this matchup, 4 share a suit (K9s at 64.00%) and 12 do not (60.98%). K9s does better with a shared suit, by 3.02 points. **K9s against 87s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | K9s wins | Ties | 87s wins | K9s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 4 | 25.00 | 63.621 | 0.764 | 35.615 | 64.003 | | No shared suit | 12 | 75.00 | 60.655 | 0.651 | 38.694 | 60.981 | ## How often this matchup comes up Exactly 16 specific deals fit this matchup in one seat order, which is 0.0010% of 1,624,350; both orders together give 32, or 0.0020%. ## A worked example Take a $200 pot built from $100 each. K9s' equity of 61.74% is worth $123.48, a $23.48 edge, and 87s' 38.26% is worth $76.52, which is $23.48 under its stake. Scaled to 1,000 deals, that is roughly 614 wins for K9s, 379 for 87s and 7 chopped pots. ## The same matchup from the other side If you came looking for 87s against K9s, the numbers are the same with the hands swapped: 38.26% and 61.74%. ## Keep exploring The calculator link fills in Ks9s against 8h7h, 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 Ks9s against 8h7h in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=Ks9s&p2=8h7h) - [K9s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/k9s.md) - [87s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/87s.md) - [K9s vs 86s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/k9s-vs-86s.md) - [K9s vs 76s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/k9s-vs-76s.md) - [A5s vs 87s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a5s-vs-87s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed The page is built from a full enumeration: 1,712,304 boards, every suit pattern of the 16 specific deals, both seven-card hands evaluated. A tie is worth half a win to each hand, and a board is tallied under each of its ten possible flops for the texture rows. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [K9s vs 86s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/k9s-vs-86s.md) - [K9s vs 76s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/k9s-vs-76s.md) - [A5s vs 87s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a5s-vs-87s.md)