Q9s vs 53s: preflop equity

Averaged over every possible board, Q9s is ahead of 53s by 26.16 points of equity, 63.08% to 36.92%.

Q9s

63.08%

Wins 62.59%, ties 0.98%

53s

36.92%

Wins 36.43%, ties 0.98%

Equity counts a tie as half a win. Exact over every board.

Q9s against 53s: the numbers

Exact preflop results for Q9s against 53s, in percent
HandWinsTiesLosesEquity
Q9s62.5870.98436.42963.079
53s36.4290.98462.58736.921

This is a contest between two suited hands, Q9s and 53s. With no overlap in ranks, every card that pairs one hand is a card that does not pair the other.

The lead is steady rather than large, and the flop still has plenty of say in who wins. Of every 100 boards, about 0.98 are split pots, and the equity figures already include them.

By strength against a random hand, Q9s holds place 43 of 169 and 53s holds place 146.

Boards behind the percentages: 27,396,864 counted in all
HandBoards won, aboutBoards tied, aboutBoards lost, about
Q9s17,147,000270,0009,980,000
53s9,980,000270,00017,147,000

The board total is exact, 16 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 53s read as odds
HandEquity as odds (to 1)Wins one deal inLoses one deal inPot odds needed to call (to 1)
Q9s1.7081.5982.7450.585
53s0.5852.7451.5981.708

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, Q9s peaks at 66.96% on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better and bottoms out at 47.57% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower). The lead reverses on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower): there 53s is the favorite even though Q9s is ahead overall.

Q9s against 53s by flop texture, in percent
FlopShare of flopsQ9s winsTies53s winsQ9s equity
Rainbow, ten or higher25.22066.7150.49132.79466.961
Rainbow, nine or lower5.68947.1640.80452.03247.566
Two-tone46.72762.1900.50537.30562.443
Monotone5.27358.4723.68437.84460.314
Paired17.09163.9852.24733.76865.108

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

Relative to a random opponent, Q9s changes by +5.42 points (baseline 57.66%) and 53s by -2.77 points (baseline 39.69%).

Q9s and 53s here compared with each against a random hand, in percent
CaseEquity hereAgainst a random handChange in pointsTimes the random-hand equity
Q9s, all flops63.07957.664+5.4151.09391
Q9s, rainbow, ten or higher66.96157.664+9.2971.16123
Q9s, rainbow, nine or lower47.56657.664-10.0980.82488
Q9s, two-tone62.44357.664+4.7791.08288
Q9s, monotone60.31457.664+2.6501.04596
Q9s, paired65.10857.664+7.4441.12909
53s, all flops36.92139.693-2.7720.93016
53s, rainbow, ten or higher33.03939.693-6.6540.83236
53s, rainbow, nine or lower52.43439.693+12.7411.32099
53s, two-tone37.55739.693-2.1360.94619
53s, monotone39.68639.693-0.0070.99982
53s, paired34.89239.693-4.8010.87905

Does a shared suit matter?

Two kinds of deal exist here. In 4 of them the hands share a suit and Q9s holds 65.40%. In 12 they do not, and it holds 62.31%. Q9s does better with a shared suit, by 3.09 points.

Q9s against 53s by suit overlap, in percent
DealsSpecific dealsShare of dealsQ9s winsTies53s winsQ9s equity
Share a suit425.0064.8551.08634.05965.398
No shared suit1275.0061.8310.95037.21962.306

How often this matchup comes up

Exactly 16 specific deals fit this matchup in one seat order, which is 0.0010% of 1,624,350; both orders together give 32, or 0.0020%.

A worked example

Try it with money: two players each put in $100 and the whole board runs out every possible way. Q9s averages $126.16 from the $200, up $26.16; 53s averages $73.84, down $26.16.

A thousand deals look like this: Q9s takes 626, 53s takes 364, 10 are ties.

The same matchup from the other side

53s against Q9s adds nothing new: it is 36.92% for 53s and 63.08% for Q9s, the same figures reversed.

The calculator link fills in Qs9s against 5h3h, 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.

How this was computed

Nothing here is simulated. The 16 deals of Q9s against 53s fall into a few suit patterns, each dealt against all 1,712,304 boards, with both best five-card hands compared on every board. Ties give each hand half a win, and the flop rows count a board under each of its ten flops.

Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used.

Bring your own hands to a session

Review the spots you actually play against these numbers in a Game Assessment, and leave with a one-page written plan.

Book a session