--- title: "Q9s vs 97s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-97s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-97s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "Q9s is a big favorite over 97s before the flop: 69.64% to 30.36% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-87s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-86s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/jts-vs-97s.md"] --- # Q9s vs 97s: preflop equity Q9s is a big favorite over 97s before the flop: 69.64% to 30.36% 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 69.64% of the pot and 97s with 30.36%. ## Q9s against 97s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for Q9s against 97s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Q9s | 67.593 | 4.093 | 28.314 | 69.639 | | 97s | 28.314 | 4.093 | 67.593 | 30.361 | Q9s meets 97s, and both are suited hands. Sharing a rank is the signature of a dominated hand, since the weaker hand is usually out-kicked when the shared rank shows up. A lead of 39.28 points is large but not decisive: 97s still takes about 283 of every 1,000 deals. Of every 100 boards, about 4.09 are split pots, and the equity figures already include them. Among the 169 starting hands, Q9s is number 43 and 97s is number 94 by strength against a random hand. **Boards behind the percentages: 20,547,648 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Q9s | 13,889,000 | 841,000 | 5,818,000 | | 97s | 5,818,000 | 841,000 | 13,889,000 | The board total is exact, 12 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 97s 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 | 2.294 | 1.479 | 3.532 | 0.436 | | 97s | 0.436 | 3.532 | 1.479 | 2.294 | 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 Rainbow flops topped by a ten or better are the best for Q9s (74.84%); low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) are the worst (54.37%). Q9s stays ahead on all five textures, but the swing between them is large, so how the flop looks matters a great deal. **Q9s against 97s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | Q9s wins | Ties | 97s wins | Q9s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 25.254 | 73.085 | 3.502 | 23.413 | 74.836 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 5.654 | 52.465 | 3.804 | 43.731 | 54.367 | | Two-tone | 46.543 | 66.823 | 3.236 | 29.941 | 68.441 | | Monotone | 5.215 | 60.402 | 5.481 | 34.117 | 63.142 | | Paired | 17.334 | 68.754 | 6.934 | 24.312 | 72.221 | 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 Against one random hand instead, Q9s holds 57.66% and 97s holds 49.12%. Facing each other changes that by +11.98 points for Q9s and -18.76 points for 97s. **Q9s and 97s 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 | 69.639 | 57.664 | +11.975 | 1.20767 | | Q9s, rainbow, ten or higher | 74.836 | 57.664 | +17.172 | 1.29779 | | Q9s, rainbow, nine or lower | 54.367 | 57.664 | -3.297 | 0.94282 | | Q9s, two-tone | 68.441 | 57.664 | +10.777 | 1.18689 | | Q9s, monotone | 63.142 | 57.664 | +5.478 | 1.09500 | | Q9s, paired | 72.221 | 57.664 | +14.557 | 1.25245 | | 97s, all flops | 30.361 | 49.118 | -18.757 | 0.61812 | | 97s, rainbow, ten or higher | 25.164 | 49.118 | -23.954 | 0.51232 | | 97s, rainbow, nine or lower | 45.633 | 49.118 | -3.485 | 0.92905 | | 97s, two-tone | 31.559 | 49.118 | -17.559 | 0.64251 | | 97s, monotone | 36.858 | 49.118 | -12.260 | 0.75040 | | 97s, paired | 27.779 | 49.118 | -21.339 | 0.56556 | ## Does a shared suit matter? There is no shared-suit case for this pair, since the cards they would need are already in the other hand. Every deal is a no-shared-suit deal. **Q9s against 97s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | Q9s wins | Ties | 97s wins | Q9s equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 0 | 0.00 | not possible | not possible | not possible | not possible | | No shared suit | 12 | 100.00 | 67.593 | 4.093 | 28.314 | 69.639 | ## How often this matchup comes up This page stands for 12 specific-card matchups (0.0007% of 1,624,350 ordered deals), or 24 once you count the seats both ways (0.0015%). ## A worked example Try it with money: two players each put in $100 and the whole board runs out every possible way. Q9s averages $139.28 from the $200, up $39.28; 97s averages $60.72, down $39.28. Scaled to 1,000 deals, that is roughly 676 wins for Q9s, 283 for 97s and 41 chopped pots. ## The same matchup from the other side The reversed view, 97s against Q9s, shows 30.36% for 97s and 69.64% for Q9s. It is the same count, so it redirects here. ## Keep exploring Try Qs9s against 9h7h 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 9h7h in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=Qs9s&p2=9h7h) - [Q9s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/q9s.md) - [97s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/97s.md) - [Q9s vs 87s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-87s.md) - [Q9s vs 86s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-86s.md) - [JTs vs 97s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/jts-vs-97s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed This is an exact count with no sampling. For the 12 ways to deal one Q9s and one 97s 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 87s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-87s.md) - [Q9s vs 86s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/q9s-vs-86s.md) - [JTs vs 97s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/jts-vs-97s.md)