--- title: "Q9s vs 22: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-22.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-22" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "Q9s vs 22 is close to a coin flip before the flop: 51.71% to 48.29% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-97s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-87s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/jts-vs-22.md"] --- # Q9s vs 22: preflop equity Q9s vs 22 is close to a coin flip before the flop: 51.71% to 48.29% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Dealt all in against each other, Q9s takes 51.71% of the pot on average and 22 takes the other 48.29%. ## Q9s against 22: the numbers **Exact preflop results for Q9s against 22, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Q9s | 51.119 | 1.176 | 47.705 | 51.707 | | 22 | 47.705 | 1.176 | 51.119 | 48.293 | The first hand is a suited hand; the second is a pocket pair. This is a pair against two overcards, a matchup that stays close because the other hand only needs one of its ranks to appear. This is close to even money, with Q9s a little ahead. Split pots make up 1.18% of the boards, and both equity figures count them as half a win each. Ranked by equity against a random hand, Q9s is number 43 of the 169 starting hands and 22 is number 87. **Boards behind the percentages: 41,095,296 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Q9s | 21,008,000 | 483,000 | 19,605,000 | | 22 | 19,605,000 | 483,000 | 21,008,000 | The board total is exact, 24 deals at 1,712,304 boards each. Won, tied and lost counts are rounded to the nearest thousand from the five-decimal percentages. **Q9s against 22 read as odds** | Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Q9s | 1.071 | 1.956 | 2.096 | 0.934 | | 22 | 0.934 | 2.096 | 1.956 | 1.071 | 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 Split by what the flop looks like, Q9s peaks at 52.62% on two-tone flops and bottoms out at 42.70% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower). Watch for low rainbow flops (nine high or lower): on those flops 22 holds the better equity. **Q9s against 22 by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | Q9s wins | Ties | 22 wins | Q9s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.220 | 52.114 | 0.575 | 47.311 | 52.401 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.689 | 42.179 | 1.042 | 56.779 | 42.700 | | Two-tone | 46.545 | 52.306 | 0.623 | 47.071 | 52.617 | | Monotone | 5.212 | 49.398 | 3.948 | 46.654 | 51.372 | | Paired | 17.334 | 49.938 | 2.746 | 47.316 | 51.311 | 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 -5.95 points for Q9s, from 57.66%, and -2.04 for 22, from 50.33%. **Q9s and 22 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Q9s, all flops | 51.707 | 57.664 | -5.957 | 0.89669 | | Q9s, rainbow, ten or higher | 52.401 | 57.664 | -5.263 | 0.90873 | | Q9s, rainbow, nine or lower | 42.700 | 57.664 | -14.964 | 0.74050 | | Q9s, two-tone | 52.617 | 57.664 | -5.047 | 0.91248 | | Q9s, monotone | 51.372 | 57.664 | -6.292 | 0.89089 | | Q9s, paired | 51.311 | 57.664 | -6.353 | 0.88983 | | 22, all flops | 48.293 | 50.334 | -2.041 | 0.95945 | | 22, rainbow, ten or higher | 47.599 | 50.334 | -2.735 | 0.94566 | | 22, rainbow, nine or lower | 57.300 | 50.334 | +6.966 | 1.13840 | | 22, two-tone | 47.383 | 50.334 | -2.951 | 0.94137 | | 22, monotone | 48.628 | 50.334 | -1.706 | 0.96611 | | 22, paired | 48.689 | 50.334 | -1.645 | 0.96732 | ## Does a shared suit matter? The suit split reads 51.53% for Q9s with a shared suit and 51.88% without one. Q9s does better with no shared suit, by 0.35 points. **Q9s against 22 by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | Q9s wins | Ties | 22 wins | Q9s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 12 | 50.00 | 50.936 | 1.196 | 47.868 | 51.534 | | No shared suit | 12 | 50.00 | 51.303 | 1.155 | 47.542 | 51.880 | ## How often this matchup comes up This page stands for 24 specific-card matchups (0.0015% of 1,624,350 ordered deals), or 48 once you count the seats both ways (0.0030%). ## A worked example Try it with money: two players each put in $100 and the whole board runs out every possible way. Q9s averages $103.42 from the $200, up $3.42; 22 averages $96.58, down $3.42. Per 1,000 deals: Q9s wins about 511, 22 wins about 477, and about 12 end in a split pot. ## The same matchup from the other side 22 against Q9s adds nothing new: it is 48.29% for 22 and 51.71% for Q9s, the same figures reversed. ## Keep exploring Qs9s against 2h2d is a ready-made deal for the calculator, with no suit in common between the hands. The neighboring matchups below replace one hand with another of similar strength. - [Open Qs9s against 2h2d in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=Qs9s&p2=2h2d) - [Q9s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/q9s.md) - [22 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/22.md) - [Q9s vs 97s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-97s.md) - [Q9s vs 87s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-87s.md) - [JTs vs 22](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/jts-vs-22.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed This is an exact count with no sampling. For the 24 ways to deal one Q9s and one 22 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 - [Q9s vs 97s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-97s.md) - [Q9s vs 87s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-87s.md) - [JTs vs 22: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/jts-vs-22.md)