--- title: "Q9s vs 86s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-86s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-86s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "Q9s is a big favorite over 86s before the flop: 63.35% to 36.65% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-76s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-75s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/jts-vs-86s.md"] --- # Q9s vs 86s: preflop equity Q9s is a big favorite over 86s before the flop: 63.35% to 36.65% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Averaged over every possible board, Q9s is ahead of 86s by 26.70 points of equity, 63.35% to 36.65%. ## Q9s against 86s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for Q9s against 86s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Q9s | 62.894 | 0.904 | 36.202 | 63.346 | | 86s | 36.202 | 0.904 | 62.894 | 36.654 | Here suited hands face each other, Q9s on one side and 86s on the other. Neither hand shares a rank with the other, so this is a contest of high cards, connection and suits. That is a modest edge, the kind that shows up over many hands and is easy to miss in one. The tie share is 0.90%: on those boards the pot is chopped and neither hand wins outright. By strength against a random hand, Q9s holds place 43 of 169 and 86s holds place 110. **Boards behind the percentages: 27,396,864 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Q9s | 17,231,000 | 248,000 | 9,918,000 | | 86s | 9,918,000 | 248,000 | 17,231,000 | 16 specific deals times 1,712,304 boards gives the exact total. The won, tied and lost counts are approximations from the five-decimal percentages, rounded to the nearest thousand. **Q9s against 86s 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 | 1.728 | 1.590 | 2.762 | 0.579 | | 86s | 0.579 | 2.762 | 1.590 | 1.728 | 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 The flop changes the picture. Q9s does best on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better, at 67.74%, and worst on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower), at 46.15%. The lead reverses on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower): there 86s is the favorite even though Q9s is ahead overall. **Q9s against 86s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | Q9s wins | Ties | 86s wins | Q9s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.220 | 67.516 | 0.441 | 32.043 | 67.736 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.689 | 45.908 | 0.491 | 53.601 | 46.153 | | Two-tone | 46.727 | 62.506 | 0.417 | 37.077 | 62.715 | | Monotone | 5.273 | 58.585 | 3.520 | 37.895 | 60.345 | | Paired | 17.091 | 64.116 | 2.248 | 33.636 | 65.240 | 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 A random hand would give Q9s 57.66% and 86s 46.24%. Against each other the change is +5.69 points for Q9s and -9.59 for 86s. **Q9s and 86s 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 | 63.346 | 57.664 | +5.682 | 1.09854 | | Q9s, rainbow, ten or higher | 67.736 | 57.664 | +10.072 | 1.17467 | | Q9s, rainbow, nine or lower | 46.153 | 57.664 | -11.511 | 0.80038 | | Q9s, two-tone | 62.715 | 57.664 | +5.051 | 1.08759 | | Q9s, monotone | 60.345 | 57.664 | +2.681 | 1.04649 | | Q9s, paired | 65.240 | 57.664 | +7.576 | 1.13138 | | 86s, all flops | 36.654 | 46.243 | -9.589 | 0.79264 | | 86s, rainbow, ten or higher | 32.264 | 46.243 | -13.979 | 0.69771 | | 86s, rainbow, nine or lower | 53.847 | 46.243 | +7.604 | 1.16444 | | 86s, two-tone | 37.285 | 46.243 | -8.958 | 0.80628 | | 86s, monotone | 39.655 | 46.243 | -6.588 | 0.85754 | | 86s, paired | 34.760 | 46.243 | -11.483 | 0.75168 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Does suit overlap move the numbers? Q9s has 65.77% when the hands share a suit and 62.54% when they do not. Q9s does better with a shared suit, by 3.23 points. **Q9s against 86s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | Q9s wins | Ties | 86s wins | Q9s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 4 | 25.00 | 65.267 | 1.000 | 33.733 | 65.767 | | No shared suit | 12 | 75.00 | 62.103 | 0.872 | 37.025 | 62.539 | ## How often this matchup comes up How often does it happen? 16 of the 1,624,350 ordered deals (0.0010%) are Q9s against 86s, and 32 (0.0020%) if either hand may sit in either seat. ## A worked example A $100 all-in from each player makes a $200 pot, and the exact equity says Q9s gets $126.70 of it on average and 86s gets $73.30. In 1,000 deals of exactly this matchup, expect about 629 won outright by Q9s, about 362 won outright by 86s and about 9 split. ## The same matchup from the other side If you came looking for 86s against Q9s, the numbers are the same with the hands swapped: 36.65% and 63.35%. ## Keep exploring Qs9s against 8h6h 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 8h6h in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=Qs9s&p2=8h6h) - [Q9s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/q9s.md) - [86s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/86s.md) - [Q9s vs 76s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-76s.md) - [Q9s vs 75s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-75s.md) - [JTs vs 86s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/jts-vs-86s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed This is an exact count with no sampling. For the 16 ways to deal one Q9s and one 86s 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 76s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-76s.md) - [Q9s vs 75s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-75s.md) - [JTs vs 86s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/jts-vs-86s.md)