--- title: "KQo vs K9o: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqo-vs-k9o.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqo-vs-k9o" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "KQo is a big favorite over K9o before the flop: 73.72% to 26.28% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqo-vs-q9s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqo-vs-jts.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a7s-vs-k9o.md"] --- # KQo vs K9o: preflop equity KQo is a big favorite over K9o before the flop: 73.72% to 26.28% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Averaged over every possible board, KQo is ahead of K9o by 47.44 points of equity, 73.72% to 26.28%. ## KQo against K9o: the numbers **Exact preflop results for KQo against K9o, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | KQo | 70.883 | 5.665 | 23.452 | 73.716 | | K9o | 23.452 | 5.665 | 70.883 | 26.284 | Here offsuit hands face each other, KQo on one side and K9o on the other. Sharing a rank is the signature of a dominated hand, since the weaker hand is usually out-kicked when the shared rank shows up. KQo is well ahead, and K9o needs a specific kind of board to catch up. About 5.67% of boards chop the pot, which is why equity sits slightly above the win figure for both hands. Ranked by equity against a random hand, KQo is number 23 of the 169 starting hands and K9o is number 40. **Boards behind the percentages: 184,928,832 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | KQo | 131,083,000 | 10,476,000 | 43,370,000 | | K9o | 43,370,000 | 10,476,000 | 131,083,000 | The board total is exact, 108 deals at 1,712,304 boards each. Won, tied and lost counts are rounded to the nearest thousand from the five-decimal percentages. **KQo against K9o read as odds** | Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | KQo | 2.805 | 1.411 | 4.264 | 0.357 | | K9o | 0.357 | 4.264 | 1.411 | 2.805 | 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 Split by what the flop looks like, KQo peaks at 78.65% on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better and bottoms out at 61.28% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower). KQo stays ahead on all five textures, but the swing between them is large, so how the flop looks matters a great deal. **KQo against K9o by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | KQo wins | Ties | K9o wins | KQo equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 24.003 | 76.757 | 3.792 | 19.451 | 78.653 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 7.042 | 59.790 | 2.980 | 37.230 | 61.280 | | Two-tone | 46.477 | 72.235 | 3.552 | 24.213 | 74.011 | | Monotone | 5.144 | 66.389 | 4.453 | 29.158 | 68.615 | | Paired | 17.334 | 64.966 | 15.372 | 19.662 | 72.652 | 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 Start from the random-hand figures, 61.46% for KQo and 57.81% for K9o. This opponent changes them by +12.26 and -31.53 points. **KQo and K9o 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | KQo, all flops | 73.716 | 61.456 | +12.260 | 1.19949 | | KQo, rainbow, ten or higher | 78.653 | 61.456 | +17.197 | 1.27983 | | KQo, rainbow, nine or lower | 61.280 | 61.456 | -0.176 | 0.99714 | | KQo, two-tone | 74.011 | 61.456 | +12.555 | 1.20429 | | KQo, monotone | 68.615 | 61.456 | +7.159 | 1.11649 | | KQo, paired | 72.652 | 61.456 | +11.196 | 1.18218 | | K9o, all flops | 26.284 | 57.812 | -31.528 | 0.45465 | | K9o, rainbow, ten or higher | 21.347 | 57.812 | -36.465 | 0.36925 | | K9o, rainbow, nine or lower | 38.720 | 57.812 | -19.092 | 0.66976 | | K9o, two-tone | 25.989 | 57.812 | -31.823 | 0.44954 | | K9o, monotone | 31.385 | 57.812 | -26.427 | 0.54288 | | K9o, paired | 27.348 | 57.812 | -30.464 | 0.47305 | ## Does a shared suit matter? The suit split reads 73.82% for KQo with a shared suit and 73.35% without one. KQo does better with a shared suit, by 0.47 points. **KQo against K9o by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | KQo wins | Ties | K9o wins | KQo equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 84 | 77.78 | 70.975 | 5.691 | 23.334 | 73.821 | | No shared suit | 24 | 22.22 | 70.563 | 5.571 | 23.866 | 73.348 | ## How often this matchup comes up Out of 1,624,350 ways to deal two seats two cards each, 108 are KQo in one seat and K9o in the other (0.0066%); with the seats swapped too, 216 (0.0133%). ## A worked example Try it with money: two players each put in $100 and the whole board runs out every possible way. KQo averages $147.44 from the $200, up $47.44; K9o averages $52.56, down $47.44. Over a long run, 1,000 deals split into about 709 for KQo, 234 for K9o and 57 tied. ## The same matchup from the other side Swap the hands and you get K9o with 26.28% against KQo with 73.72%. We keep one page per matchup, with the better-ranked hand first. ## Keep exploring Try KsQh against Kd9c 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 KsQh against Kd9c in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=KsQh&p2=Kd9c) - [KQo combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/kqo.md) - [K9o combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/k9o.md) - [KQo vs Q9s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqo-vs-q9s.md) - [KQo vs JTs](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqo-vs-jts.md) - [A7s vs K9o](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a7s-vs-k9o.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed We counted every case. Each suit pattern of the 108 specific KQo against K9o deals meets all 1,712,304 boards, and the better five-card hand wins; a split pot is half a win each. The flop table reads each board under all ten of its three-card flops. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [KQo vs Q9s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqo-vs-q9s.md) - [KQo vs JTs: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqo-vs-jts.md) - [A7s vs K9o: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a7s-vs-k9o.md)