Q9s vs 87s: preflop equity

Counting every board, the equity split is 62.78% for Q9s and 37.22% for 87s, so Q9s leads by 25.56 points.

Q9s

62.78%

Wins 62.32%, ties 0.91%

87s

37.22%

Wins 36.77%, ties 0.91%

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

Q9s against 87s: the numbers

Exact preflop results for Q9s against 87s, in percent
HandWinsTiesLosesEquity
Q9s62.3210.91436.76562.778
87s36.7650.91462.32137.222

Both hands are suited hands: Q9s and 87s. 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. Ties are 0.91% of the outcomes here; each tied board gives both hands half the pot.

Q9s ranks number 43 of 169 starting hands, and 87s ranks number 100, by equity against a random hand.

Boards behind the percentages: 27,396,864 counted in all
HandBoards won, aboutBoards tied, aboutBoards lost, about
Q9s17,074,000250,00010,072,000
87s10,072,000250,00017,074,000

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 87s read as odds
HandEquity as odds (to 1)Wins one deal inLoses one deal inPot odds needed to call (to 1)
Q9s1.6871.6052.7200.593
87s0.5932.7201.6051.687

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

Break the boards down by their first three cards and Q9s is strongest on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better (66.78%) and weakest on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) (47.05%). The lead reverses on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower): there 87s is the favorite even though Q9s is ahead overall.

Q9s against 87s by flop texture, in percent
FlopShare of flopsQ9s winsTies87s winsQ9s equity
Rainbow, ten or higher25.22066.5350.49032.97566.780
Rainbow, nine or lower5.68946.8740.35952.76747.053
Two-tone46.72761.9340.42937.63762.148
Monotone5.27358.1123.52438.36459.874
Paired17.09163.6042.24434.15264.726

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

How much does the opponent matter? Compared with its random-hand 57.66%, Q9s changes by +5.12 points, and 87s, from 47.94%, by -10.72.

Q9s and 87s here compared with each against a random hand, in percent
CaseEquity hereAgainst a random handChange in pointsTimes the random-hand equity
Q9s, all flops62.77857.664+5.1141.08869
Q9s, rainbow, ten or higher66.78057.664+9.1161.15809
Q9s, rainbow, nine or lower47.05357.664-10.6110.81599
Q9s, two-tone62.14857.664+4.4841.07776
Q9s, monotone59.87457.664+2.2101.03833
Q9s, paired64.72657.664+7.0621.12247
87s, all flops37.22247.936-10.7140.77649
87s, rainbow, ten or higher33.22047.936-14.7160.69301
87s, rainbow, nine or lower52.94747.936+5.0111.10454
87s, two-tone37.85247.936-10.0840.78964
87s, monotone40.12647.936-7.8100.83707
87s, paired35.27447.936-12.6620.73586

Does a shared suit matter?

Does suit overlap move the numbers? Q9s has 65.15% when the hands share a suit and 61.99% when they do not. Q9s does better with a shared suit, by 3.16 points.

Q9s against 87s by suit overlap, in percent
DealsSpecific dealsShare of dealsQ9s winsTies87s winsQ9s equity
Share a suit425.0064.6431.01034.34765.148
No shared suit1275.0061.5470.88237.57161.988

How often this matchup comes up

The class pair covers 16 combinations of specific cards in a fixed seat order, 0.0010% of 1,624,350, and 32 (0.0020%) in either order.

A worked example

Say each player puts $100 in before the flop, making a $200 pot. On average Q9s takes back $125.56 of it, which is $25.56 more than it put in, and 87s takes back $74.44, $25.56 less than it put in.

Out of 1,000 deals you should see around 623 outright wins for Q9s, 368 for 87s, and 9 split pots.

The same matchup from the other side

If you came looking for 87s against Q9s, the numbers are the same with the hands swapped: 37.22% and 62.78%.

Try Qs9s against 8h7h 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.

How this was computed

Method: exact enumeration. The 16 specific deals are grouped by suit pattern, each is run against all 1,712,304 boards, and both seven-card hands are scored. Equity adds half of every tie, and flop textures are tallied over the ten flops inside each board.

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

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