--- title: "K9s vs 97s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/k9s-vs-97s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/k9s-vs-97s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "K9s is a big favorite over 97s before the flop: 68.46% to 31.54% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/k9s-vs-87s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/k9s-vs-86s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a5s-vs-97s.md"] --- # K9s vs 97s: preflop equity K9s is a big favorite over 97s before the flop: 68.46% to 31.54% 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, K9s finishes with 68.46% of the pot and 97s with 31.54%. ## K9s against 97s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for K9s against 97s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | K9s | 66.921 | 3.086 | 29.993 | 68.464 | | 97s | 29.993 | 3.086 | 66.921 | 31.536 | The matchup is suited hands on both sides, K9s against 97s. Because the hands share one rank, the one with the higher kicker is ahead when that rank pairs and the other hand is mostly drawing. K9s is the clear favorite, though 97s gets there on roughly one board in 3. 3.09% of boards are ties, so the equity of each hand is its win rate plus half of that. By strength against a random hand, K9s holds place 29 of 169 and 97s holds place 94. **Boards behind the percentages: 20,547,648 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | K9s | 13,751,000 | 634,000 | 6,163,000 | | 97s | 6,163,000 | 634,000 | 13,751,000 | The total is exact: 12 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 97s 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 | 2.171 | 1.494 | 3.334 | 0.461 | | 97s | 0.461 | 3.334 | 1.494 | 2.171 | 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 The flop changes the picture. K9s does best on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better, at 72.88%, and worst on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower), at 54.06%. K9s stays ahead on all five textures, but the swing between them is large, so how the flop looks matters a great deal. **K9s against 97s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | K9s wins | Ties | 97s wins | K9s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.254 | 71.572 | 2.620 | 25.808 | 72.882 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.654 | 52.298 | 3.520 | 44.182 | 54.058 | | Two-tone | 46.543 | 65.821 | 2.503 | 31.676 | 67.072 | | Monotone | 5.215 | 59.874 | 4.850 | 35.276 | 62.299 | | Paired | 17.334 | 69.987 | 4.659 | 25.354 | 72.316 | 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 The table below sets each hand against its own random-hand baseline: a change of +8.47 points for K9s, from 59.99%, and -17.58 for 97s, from 49.12%. **K9s and 97s 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 | 68.464 | 59.988 | +8.476 | 1.14129 | | K9s, rainbow, ten or higher | 72.882 | 59.988 | +12.894 | 1.21494 | | K9s, rainbow, nine or lower | 54.058 | 59.988 | -5.930 | 0.90115 | | K9s, two-tone | 67.072 | 59.988 | +7.084 | 1.11809 | | K9s, monotone | 62.299 | 59.988 | +2.311 | 1.03852 | | K9s, paired | 72.316 | 59.988 | +12.328 | 1.20551 | | 97s, all flops | 31.536 | 49.118 | -17.582 | 0.64205 | | 97s, rainbow, ten or higher | 27.118 | 49.118 | -22.000 | 0.55210 | | 97s, rainbow, nine or lower | 45.942 | 49.118 | -3.176 | 0.93534 | | 97s, two-tone | 32.928 | 49.118 | -16.190 | 0.67039 | | 97s, monotone | 37.701 | 49.118 | -11.417 | 0.76756 | | 97s, paired | 27.684 | 49.118 | -21.434 | 0.56362 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Suits do not split this matchup, because no legal deal has the hands holding the same suit. **K9s against 97s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | K9s wins | Ties | 97s wins | K9s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 0 | 0.00 | not possible | not possible | not possible | not possible | | No shared suit | 12 | 100.00 | 66.921 | 3.086 | 29.993 | 68.464 | ## How often this matchup comes up Out of 1,624,350 ways to deal two seats two cards each, 12 are K9s in one seat and 97s in the other (0.0007%); with the seats swapped too, 24 (0.0015%). ## A worked example Worked example: both players commit $100, so $200 sits in the middle. Over every board, K9s' average share is $136.92 (a gain of $36.92) and 97s' is $63.08 (a loss of $36.92). Scaled to 1,000 deals, that is roughly 669 wins for K9s, 300 for 97s and 31 chopped pots. ## The same matchup from the other side 97s versus K9s is this same page seen from the other hand: 31.54% for 97s, 68.46% for K9s. ## Keep exploring Open the calculator with Ks9s against 9h7h already entered, a deal with no shared suit, and change any card to try your own hand. The matchups after it each swap one hand for a nearby one in the ranking. - [Open Ks9s against 9h7h in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=Ks9s&p2=9h7h) - [K9s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/k9s.md) - [97s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/97s.md) - [K9s vs 87s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/k9s-vs-87s.md) - [K9s vs 86s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/k9s-vs-86s.md) - [A5s vs 97s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a5s-vs-97s.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 12 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 87s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/k9s-vs-87s.md) - [K9s vs 86s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/k9s-vs-86s.md) - [A5s vs 97s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a5s-vs-97s.md)