--- title: "KTo vs 97s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kto-vs-97s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kto-vs-97s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "KTo is a big favorite over 97s before the flop: 60.99% to 39.01% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kto-vs-87s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kto-vs-86s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qts-vs-97s.md"] --- # KTo vs 97s: preflop equity KTo is a big favorite over 97s before the flop: 60.99% to 39.01% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Dealt all in against each other, KTo takes 60.99% of the pot on average and 97s takes the other 39.01%. ## KTo against 97s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for KTo against 97s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | KTo | 60.673 | 0.633 | 38.694 | 60.990 | | 97s | 38.694 | 0.633 | 60.673 | 39.010 | The first hand is an offsuit hand; the second is a suited hand. With no overlap in ranks, every card that pairs one hand is a card that does not pair the other. That is a modest edge, the kind that shows up over many hands and is easy to miss in one. About 0.63% of boards chop the pot, which is why equity sits slightly above the win figure for both hands. For context, KTo sits at number 33 of 169 starting hands and 97s at number 94 when each is run against a random hand. **Boards behind the percentages: 82,190,592 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | KTo | 49,867,000 | 520,000 | 31,803,000 | | 97s | 31,803,000 | 520,000 | 49,867,000 | Exact total: 48 deals times 1,712,304 boards. The other three counts come from the five-decimal percentages and are rounded to the nearest thousand, so read them as approximate. **KTo 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) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | KTo | 1.563 | 1.648 | 2.584 | 0.640 | | 97s | 0.640 | 2.584 | 1.648 | 1.563 | 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 KTo prefers rainbow flops topped by a ten or better, where it holds 68.53%, and likes low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) least, where it holds 37.91%. The lead reverses on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower): there 97s is the favorite even though KTo is ahead overall. **KTo against 97s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | KTo wins | Ties | 97s wins | KTo equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 24.717 | 68.361 | 0.329 | 31.310 | 68.525 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 6.313 | 37.680 | 0.464 | 61.856 | 37.912 | | Two-tone | 46.667 | 59.289 | 0.335 | 40.376 | 59.456 | | Monotone | 5.212 | 57.862 | 2.430 | 39.708 | 59.077 | | Paired | 17.091 | 62.685 | 1.403 | 35.912 | 63.387 | 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 Each hand has a baseline against a random hand: 59.74% for KTo, 49.12% for 97s. Here the change is +1.25 and -10.11 points. **KTo 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | KTo, all flops | 60.990 | 59.739 | +1.251 | 1.02094 | | KTo, rainbow, ten or higher | 68.525 | 59.739 | +8.786 | 1.14707 | | KTo, rainbow, nine or lower | 37.912 | 59.739 | -21.827 | 0.63463 | | KTo, two-tone | 59.456 | 59.739 | -0.283 | 0.99526 | | KTo, monotone | 59.077 | 59.739 | -0.662 | 0.98892 | | KTo, paired | 63.387 | 59.739 | +3.648 | 1.06107 | | 97s, all flops | 39.010 | 49.118 | -10.108 | 0.79421 | | 97s, rainbow, ten or higher | 31.475 | 49.118 | -17.643 | 0.64080 | | 97s, rainbow, nine or lower | 62.088 | 49.118 | +12.970 | 1.26406 | | 97s, two-tone | 40.544 | 49.118 | -8.574 | 0.82544 | | 97s, monotone | 40.923 | 49.118 | -8.195 | 0.83316 | | 97s, paired | 36.613 | 49.118 | -12.505 | 0.74541 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Suit overlap shows up in the numbers. With a suit in common KTo has 61.68% equity, and with none in common it has 60.30%. KTo does better with a shared suit, by 1.38 points. **KTo against 97s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | KTo wins | Ties | 97s wins | KTo equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 24 | 50.00 | 61.338 | 0.674 | 37.988 | 61.675 | | No shared suit | 24 | 50.00 | 60.008 | 0.592 | 39.400 | 60.304 | ## How often this matchup comes up You will meet this exact matchup 0.0059% of the time in a random heads-up deal: 96 of 1,624,350, counting either seat order. ## A worked example Worked example: both players commit $100, so $200 sits in the middle. Over every board, KTo's average share is $121.98 (a gain of $21.98) and 97s' is $78.02 (a loss of $21.98). Run 1,000 deals and the tally comes out near 607 for KTo, 387 for 97s and 6 ties. ## The same matchup from the other side 97s versus KTo is this same page seen from the other hand: 39.01% for 97s, 60.99% for KTo. ## Keep exploring Open the calculator with KsTh against 9d7d 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 KsTh against 9d7d in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=KsTh&p2=9d7d) - [KTo combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/kto.md) - [97s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/97s.md) - [KTo vs 87s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kto-vs-87s.md) - [KTo vs 86s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kto-vs-86s.md) - [QTs vs 97s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qts-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 48 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 - [KTo vs 87s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kto-vs-87s.md) - [KTo vs 86s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/kto-vs-86s.md) - [QTs vs 97s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qts-vs-97s.md)