--- title: "KQo vs Q9s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqo-vs-q9s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqo-vs-q9s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "KQo is a big favorite over Q9s before the flop: 69.97% to 30.03% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqo-vs-jts.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqo-vs-a2s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a7s-vs-q9s.md"] --- # KQo vs Q9s: preflop equity KQo is a big favorite over Q9s before the flop: 69.97% to 30.03% 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, KQo finishes with 69.97% of the pot and Q9s with 30.03%. ## KQo against Q9s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for KQo against Q9s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | KQo | 68.725 | 2.496 | 28.779 | 69.973 | | Q9s | 28.779 | 2.496 | 68.725 | 30.027 | KQo is an offsuit hand and Q9s is a suited hand. 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. KQo is the clear favorite, though Q9s gets there on roughly one board in 3. Split pots make up 2.50% of the boards, and both equity figures count them as half a win each. KQo ranks number 23 of 169 starting hands, and Q9s ranks number 43, by equity against a random hand. **Boards behind the percentages: 61,642,944 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | KQo | 42,364,000 | 1,539,000 | 17,740,000 | | Q9s | 17,740,000 | 1,539,000 | 42,364,000 | The total is exact: 36 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. **KQo against Q9s 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 | 2.330 | 1.455 | 3.475 | 0.429 | | Q9s | 0.429 | 3.475 | 1.455 | 2.330 | 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 Across the five flop textures KQo's equity moves by 15.61 points, from 59.70% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) to 75.31% on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better. 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 Q9s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | KQo wins | Ties | Q9s wins | KQo equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 23.905 | 74.130 | 2.363 | 23.507 | 75.312 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 7.042 | 59.172 | 1.054 | 39.774 | 59.699 | | Two-tone | 46.527 | 67.231 | 1.947 | 30.822 | 68.205 | | Monotone | 5.192 | 63.524 | 3.487 | 32.989 | 65.267 | | Paired | 17.334 | 70.718 | 4.444 | 24.838 | 72.940 | 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 Compared with a random opponent, this matchup shifts KQo from 61.46% by +8.51 points and Q9s from 57.66% by -27.63 points. **KQo and Q9s 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 | 69.973 | 61.456 | +8.517 | 1.13859 | | KQo, rainbow, ten or higher | 75.312 | 61.456 | +13.856 | 1.22546 | | KQo, rainbow, nine or lower | 59.699 | 61.456 | -1.757 | 0.97141 | | KQo, two-tone | 68.205 | 61.456 | +6.749 | 1.10982 | | KQo, monotone | 65.267 | 61.456 | +3.811 | 1.06201 | | KQo, paired | 72.940 | 61.456 | +11.484 | 1.18687 | | Q9s, all flops | 30.027 | 57.664 | -27.637 | 0.52072 | | Q9s, rainbow, ten or higher | 24.688 | 57.664 | -32.976 | 0.42814 | | Q9s, rainbow, nine or lower | 40.301 | 57.664 | -17.363 | 0.69889 | | Q9s, two-tone | 31.795 | 57.664 | -25.869 | 0.55138 | | Q9s, monotone | 34.733 | 57.664 | -22.931 | 0.60233 | | Q9s, paired | 27.060 | 57.664 | -30.604 | 0.46927 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Two kinds of deal exist here. In 12 of them the hands share a suit and KQo holds 71.05%. In 24 they do not, and it holds 69.44%. KQo does better with a shared suit, by 1.61 points. **KQo against Q9s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | KQo wins | Ties | Q9s wins | KQo equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 12 | 33.33 | 69.753 | 2.587 | 27.660 | 71.047 | | No shared suit | 24 | 66.67 | 68.211 | 2.451 | 29.338 | 69.436 | ## How often this matchup comes up KQo against Q9s is made up of 36 specific-card matchups in one seat order, 0.0022% of the 1,624,350 ordered deals, and 72 counting both seat orders, 0.0044%. ## A worked example To see what the equity is worth, imagine $100 each in a $200 pot. KQo is worth $139.94 on average (+$39.94); Q9s is worth $60.06 (-$39.94). A thousand deals look like this: KQo takes 687, Q9s takes 288, 25 are ties. ## The same matchup from the other side If you came looking for Q9s against KQo, the numbers are the same with the hands swapped: 30.03% and 69.97%. ## Keep exploring The calculator link fills in KsQh against Qd9d, 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 KsQh against Qd9d in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=KsQh&p2=Qd9d) - [KQo combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/kqo.md) - [Q9s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/q9s.md) - [KQo vs JTs](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqo-vs-jts.md) - [KQo vs A2s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqo-vs-a2s.md) - [A7s vs Q9s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a7s-vs-q9s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed All 1,712,304 five-card boards are dealt for every suit pattern among the 36 specific deals of KQo against Q9s, and both hands are scored on each. That is a full count, so the percentages are exact. Ties are half a win each, and each board appears once per flop it contains. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [KQo vs JTs: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqo-vs-jts.md) - [KQo vs A2s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kqo-vs-a2s.md) - [A7s vs Q9s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a7s-vs-q9s.md)