--- title: "Q9s vs 44: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-44.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-44" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "Q9s vs 44 is close to a coin flip before the flop: 50.62% to 49.39% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-j9s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-jto.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/jts-vs-44.md"] --- # Q9s vs 44: preflop equity Q9s vs 44 is close to a coin flip before the flop: 50.62% to 49.39% 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, Q9s finishes with 50.62% of the pot and 44 with 49.38%. ## Q9s against 44: the numbers **Exact preflop results for Q9s against 44, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Q9s | 50.194 | 0.842 | 48.964 | 50.615 | | 44 | 48.964 | 0.842 | 50.194 | 49.385 | Q9s is a suited hand and 44 is a pocket pair. One hand holds a pair and the other holds two cards that both outrank it, which keeps the equity closer than most people expect. This is close to even money, with Q9s a little ahead. About 0.84% 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, Q9s is number 43 of the 169 starting hands and 44 is number 48. **Boards behind the percentages: 41,095,296 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Q9s | 20,627,000 | 346,000 | 20,122,000 | | 44 | 20,122,000 | 346,000 | 20,627,000 | 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 44 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 | 1.025 | 1.992 | 2.042 | 0.976 | | 44 | 0.976 | 2.042 | 1.992 | 1.025 | 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 By flop texture, Q9s' equity runs from 41.42% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) up to 52.04% on two-tone flops. 44 is ahead on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) and paired flops, even though it trails Q9s when every flop is counted. **Q9s against 44 by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | Q9s wins | Ties | 44 wins | Q9s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.220 | 51.734 | 0.429 | 47.837 | 51.948 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.689 | 40.991 | 0.854 | 58.155 | 41.418 | | Two-tone | 46.545 | 51.801 | 0.479 | 47.720 | 52.041 | | Monotone | 5.212 | 48.993 | 2.948 | 48.059 | 50.467 | | Paired | 17.334 | 47.022 | 1.782 | 51.196 | 47.913 | Read the flop types this way: rainbow has three suits, two-tone has two cards of one suit, monotone has three, and paired repeats a rank. ## Compared with a random hand Each hand has a baseline against a random hand: 57.66% for Q9s, 57.02% for 44. Here the change is -7.04 and -7.64 points. **Q9s and 44 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 | 50.615 | 57.664 | -7.049 | 0.87776 | | Q9s, rainbow, ten or higher | 51.948 | 57.664 | -5.716 | 0.90087 | | Q9s, rainbow, nine or lower | 41.418 | 57.664 | -16.246 | 0.71826 | | Q9s, two-tone | 52.041 | 57.664 | -5.623 | 0.90249 | | Q9s, monotone | 50.467 | 57.664 | -7.197 | 0.87519 | | Q9s, paired | 47.913 | 57.664 | -9.751 | 0.83090 | | 44, all flops | 49.385 | 57.023 | -7.638 | 0.86605 | | 44, rainbow, ten or higher | 48.052 | 57.023 | -8.971 | 0.84268 | | 44, rainbow, nine or lower | 58.582 | 57.023 | +1.559 | 1.02734 | | 44, two-tone | 47.959 | 57.023 | -9.064 | 0.84105 | | 44, monotone | 49.533 | 57.023 | -7.490 | 0.86865 | | 44, paired | 52.087 | 57.023 | -4.936 | 0.91344 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Two kinds of deal exist here. In 12 of them the hands share a suit and Q9s holds 50.45%. In 12 they do not, and it holds 50.78%. Q9s does better with no shared suit, by 0.33 points. **Q9s against 44 by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | Q9s wins | Ties | 44 wins | Q9s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 12 | 50.00 | 50.009 | 0.879 | 49.112 | 50.449 | | No shared suit | 12 | 50.00 | 50.380 | 0.805 | 48.815 | 50.782 | ## How often this matchup comes up Q9s against 44 is made up of 24 specific-card matchups in one seat order, 0.0015% of the 1,624,350 ordered deals, and 48 counting both seat orders, 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 $101.24 from the $200, up $1.24; 44 averages $98.76, down $1.24. Out of 1,000 deals you should see around 502 outright wins for Q9s, 490 for 44, and 8 split pots. ## The same matchup from the other side The reversed view, 44 against Q9s, shows 49.38% for 44 and 50.62% for Q9s. It is the same count, so it redirects here. ## Keep exploring Try Qs9s against 4h4d 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 Qs9s against 4h4d in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=Qs9s&p2=4h4d) - [Q9s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/q9s.md) - [44 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/44.md) - [Q9s vs J9s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-j9s.md) - [Q9s vs JTo](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-jto.md) - [JTs vs 44](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/jts-vs-44.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed The figures are counted, not estimated: 1,712,304 boards for every suit pattern of the 24 specific deals, with both seven-card hands compared each time. Equity gives half a win for a tie. For the flop rows, a board is counted once under each of the ten flops inside it. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [Q9s vs J9s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-j9s.md) - [Q9s vs JTo: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-jto.md) - [JTs vs 44: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/jts-vs-44.md)