--- title: "Q9s vs 87s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-87s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-87s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "Q9s is a big favorite over 87s before the flop: 62.78% to 37.22% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-86s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-76s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/jts-vs-87s.md"] --- # Q9s vs 87s: preflop equity Q9s is a big favorite over 87s before the flop: 62.78% to 37.22% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Counting every board, the equity split is 62.78% for Q9s and 37.22% for 87s, so Q9s leads by 25.56 points. ## Q9s against 87s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for Q9s against 87s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Q9s | 62.321 | 0.914 | 36.765 | 62.778 | | 87s | 36.765 | 0.914 | 62.321 | 37.222 | 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** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Q9s | 17,074,000 | 250,000 | 10,072,000 | | 87s | 10,072,000 | 250,000 | 17,074,000 | 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** | Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Q9s | 1.687 | 1.605 | 2.720 | 0.593 | | 87s | 0.593 | 2.720 | 1.605 | 1.687 | 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** | Flop | Share of flops | Q9s wins | Ties | 87s wins | Q9s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.220 | 66.535 | 0.490 | 32.975 | 66.780 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.689 | 46.874 | 0.359 | 52.767 | 47.053 | | Two-tone | 46.727 | 61.934 | 0.429 | 37.637 | 62.148 | | Monotone | 5.273 | 58.112 | 3.524 | 38.364 | 59.874 | | Paired | 17.091 | 63.604 | 2.244 | 34.152 | 64.726 | 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** | Case | Equity here | Against a random hand | Change in points | Times the random-hand equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Q9s, all flops | 62.778 | 57.664 | +5.114 | 1.08869 | | Q9s, rainbow, ten or higher | 66.780 | 57.664 | +9.116 | 1.15809 | | Q9s, rainbow, nine or lower | 47.053 | 57.664 | -10.611 | 0.81599 | | Q9s, two-tone | 62.148 | 57.664 | +4.484 | 1.07776 | | Q9s, monotone | 59.874 | 57.664 | +2.210 | 1.03833 | | Q9s, paired | 64.726 | 57.664 | +7.062 | 1.12247 | | 87s, all flops | 37.222 | 47.936 | -10.714 | 0.77649 | | 87s, rainbow, ten or higher | 33.220 | 47.936 | -14.716 | 0.69301 | | 87s, rainbow, nine or lower | 52.947 | 47.936 | +5.011 | 1.10454 | | 87s, two-tone | 37.852 | 47.936 | -10.084 | 0.78964 | | 87s, monotone | 40.126 | 47.936 | -7.810 | 0.83707 | | 87s, paired | 35.274 | 47.936 | -12.662 | 0.73586 | ## 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** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | Q9s wins | Ties | 87s wins | Q9s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 4 | 25.00 | 64.643 | 1.010 | 34.347 | 65.148 | | No shared suit | 12 | 75.00 | 61.547 | 0.882 | 37.571 | 61.988 | ## 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%. ## Keep exploring 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. - [Open Qs9s against 8h7h in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=Qs9s&p2=8h7h) - [Q9s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/q9s.md) - [87s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/87s.md) - [Q9s vs 86s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-86s.md) - [Q9s vs 76s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-76s.md) - [JTs vs 87s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/jts-vs-87s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## 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. ## Related - [Q9s vs 86s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-86s.md) - [Q9s vs 76s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-76s.md) - [JTs vs 87s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/jts-vs-87s.md)