--- title: "KK vs K9s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kk-vs-k9s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kk-vs-k9s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "KK is a big favorite over K9s before the flop: 87.10% to 12.90% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kk-vs-a5s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kk-vs-a6s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qq-vs-k9s.md"] --- # KK vs K9s: preflop equity KK is a big favorite over K9s before the flop: 87.10% to 12.90% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. The exact count puts KK at 87.10% and K9s at 12.90% when the two hands see all five board cards. ## KK against K9s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for KK against K9s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | KK | 86.474 | 1.258 | 12.268 | 87.103 | | K9s | 12.268 | 1.258 | 86.474 | 12.897 | The first hand is a pocket pair; the second is a suited hand. The non-pair hand shares a rank with the pair, so two of its outs for pairing are blocked by the pair itself. KK is a big favorite here before anyone sees a flop. 1.26% of boards are ties, so the equity of each hand is its win rate plus half of that. Ranked by equity against a random hand, KK is number 2 of the 169 starting hands and K9s is number 29. **Boards behind the percentages: 20,547,648 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | KK | 17,768,000 | 258,000 | 2,521,000 | | K9s | 2,521,000 | 258,000 | 17,768,000 | 12 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. **KK against K9s read as odds** | Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | KK | 6.754 | 1.156 | 8.151 | 0.148 | | K9s | 0.148 | 8.151 | 1.156 | 6.754 | 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 If you know the kind of flop that came, the numbers shift: KK holds 90.88% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) and 77.13% on monotone flops. KK stays ahead on all five textures. **KK against K9s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | KK wins | Ties | K9s wins | KK equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 23.740 | 89.694 | 1.549 | 8.757 | 90.468 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 7.042 | 90.342 | 1.077 | 8.581 | 90.881 | | Two-tone | 46.236 | 84.965 | 1.305 | 13.730 | 85.618 | | Monotone | 5.151 | 75.963 | 2.330 | 21.707 | 77.128 | | Paired | 17.831 | 87.610 | 0.511 | 11.879 | 87.865 | 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 Against one random hand instead, KK holds 82.40% and K9s holds 59.99%. Facing each other changes that by +4.70 points for KK and -47.09 points for K9s. **KK and K9s 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | KK, all flops | 87.103 | 82.396 | +4.707 | 1.05713 | | KK, rainbow, ten or higher | 90.468 | 82.396 | +8.072 | 1.09797 | | KK, rainbow, nine or lower | 90.881 | 82.396 | +8.485 | 1.10298 | | KK, two-tone | 85.618 | 82.396 | +3.222 | 1.03910 | | KK, monotone | 77.128 | 82.396 | -5.268 | 0.93606 | | KK, paired | 87.865 | 82.396 | +5.469 | 1.06637 | | K9s, all flops | 12.897 | 59.988 | -47.091 | 0.21499 | | K9s, rainbow, ten or higher | 9.532 | 59.988 | -50.456 | 0.15890 | | K9s, rainbow, nine or lower | 9.119 | 59.988 | -50.869 | 0.15201 | | K9s, two-tone | 14.382 | 59.988 | -45.606 | 0.23975 | | K9s, monotone | 22.872 | 59.988 | -37.116 | 0.38128 | | K9s, paired | 12.135 | 59.988 | -47.853 | 0.20229 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Suits do not split this matchup, because no legal deal has the hands holding the same suit. **KK against K9s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | KK wins | Ties | K9s wins | KK equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 0 | 0.00 | not possible | not possible | not possible | not possible | | No shared suit | 12 | 100.00 | 86.474 | 1.258 | 12.268 | 87.103 | ## How often this matchup comes up The class pair covers 12 combinations of specific cards in a fixed seat order, 0.0007% of 1,624,350, and 24 (0.0015%) in either order. ## A worked example Try it with money: two players each put in $100 and the whole board runs out every possible way. KK averages $174.20 from the $200, up $74.20; K9s averages $25.80, down $74.20. A thousand deals look like this: KK takes 865, K9s takes 123, 12 are ties. ## The same matchup from the other side One page covers both views. From K9s' side the equity is 12.90%, and from KK's side it is 87.10%. ## Keep exploring Try KsKh against Kd9d in the calculator: the hands share no suit, and every card can be changed. The links after it are the closest matchups in the ranking. - [Open KsKh against Kd9d in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=KsKh&p2=Kd9d) - [KK combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/kk.md) - [K9s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/k9s.md) - [KK vs A5s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kk-vs-a5s.md) - [KK vs A6s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kk-vs-a6s.md) - [QQ vs K9s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qq-vs-k9s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed This is an exact count with no sampling. For the 12 ways to deal one KK and one K9s without reusing a card, grouped by suit pattern, every one of the 1,712,304 possible boards is dealt and both seven-card hands are compared. A tie counts as half a win in the equity column, and each board is counted once under each of its ten three-card flops. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [KK vs A5s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kk-vs-a5s.md) - [KK vs A6s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kk-vs-a6s.md) - [QQ vs K9s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qq-vs-k9s.md)