--- title: "QJo vs 97s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjo-vs-97s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjo-vs-97s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "QJo is a big favorite over 97s before the flop: 61.95% to 38.05% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjo-vs-87s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjo-vs-86s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/k9o-vs-97s.md"] --- # QJo vs 97s: preflop equity QJo is a big favorite over 97s before the flop: 61.95% to 38.05% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Before any board card is dealt, QJo holds 61.95% equity against 97s, which leaves 97s with 38.05%. ## QJo against 97s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for QJo against 97s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | QJo | 61.508 | 0.883 | 37.609 | 61.949 | | 97s | 37.609 | 0.883 | 61.508 | 38.051 | The matchup pits an offsuit hand against a suited hand. 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. Split pots make up 0.88% of the boards, and both equity figures count them as half a win each. The hand ranking puts QJo at 39 and 97s at 94 out of 169 starting hands. **Boards behind the percentages: 82,190,592 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | QJo | 50,554,000 | 726,000 | 30,911,000 | | 97s | 30,911,000 | 726,000 | 50,554,000 | The board total is exact, 48 deals at 1,712,304 boards each. Won, tied and lost counts are rounded to the nearest thousand from the five-decimal percentages. **QJo 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) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | QJo | 1.628 | 1.626 | 2.659 | 0.614 | | 97s | 0.614 | 2.659 | 1.626 | 1.628 | The last column is the break-even price: the pot odds a call needs to offer, as a ratio of pot to call. ## Who is ahead on which flops Split by what the flop looks like, QJo peaks at 69.83% on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better and bottoms out at 38.85% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower). QJo is the favorite overall but falls behind on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower). **QJo against 97s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | QJo wins | Ties | 97s wins | QJo equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 24.717 | 69.597 | 0.459 | 29.944 | 69.826 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 6.313 | 38.559 | 0.587 | 60.854 | 38.853 | | Two-tone | 46.667 | 60.375 | 0.456 | 39.169 | 60.603 | | Monotone | 5.212 | 58.703 | 2.524 | 38.773 | 59.965 | | Paired | 17.091 | 62.235 | 2.270 | 35.495 | 63.370 | 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 QJo 58.14% and 97s 49.12%. Against each other the change is +3.81 points for QJo and -11.07 for 97s. **QJo 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | QJo, all flops | 61.949 | 58.135 | +3.814 | 1.06561 | | QJo, rainbow, ten or higher | 69.826 | 58.135 | +11.691 | 1.20110 | | QJo, rainbow, nine or lower | 38.853 | 58.135 | -19.282 | 0.66832 | | QJo, two-tone | 60.603 | 58.135 | +2.468 | 1.04245 | | QJo, monotone | 59.965 | 58.135 | +1.830 | 1.03148 | | QJo, paired | 63.370 | 58.135 | +5.235 | 1.09005 | | 97s, all flops | 38.051 | 49.118 | -11.067 | 0.77469 | | 97s, rainbow, ten or higher | 30.174 | 49.118 | -18.944 | 0.61432 | | 97s, rainbow, nine or lower | 61.147 | 49.118 | +12.029 | 1.24490 | | 97s, two-tone | 39.397 | 49.118 | -9.721 | 0.80209 | | 97s, monotone | 40.035 | 49.118 | -9.083 | 0.81508 | | 97s, paired | 36.630 | 49.118 | -12.488 | 0.74576 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Looking only at deals where the hands share a suit, QJo has 62.66%; looking only at deals where they do not, 61.24%. QJo does better with a shared suit, by 1.42 points. **QJo against 97s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | QJo wins | Ties | 97s wins | QJo equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 24 | 50.00 | 62.200 | 0.924 | 36.876 | 62.662 | | No shared suit | 24 | 50.00 | 60.816 | 0.841 | 38.343 | 61.237 | ## How often this matchup comes up Out of 1,624,350 ways to deal two seats two cards each, 48 are QJo in one seat and 97s in the other (0.0030%); with the seats swapped too, 96 (0.0059%). ## A worked example Try it with money: two players each put in $100 and the whole board runs out every possible way. QJo averages $123.90 from the $200, up $23.90; 97s averages $76.10, down $23.90. Out of 1,000 deals you should see around 615 outright wins for QJo, 376 for 97s, and 9 split pots. ## The same matchup from the other side If you came looking for 97s against QJo, the numbers are the same with the hands swapped: 38.05% and 61.95%. ## Keep exploring The calculator link fills in QsJh against 9d7d, 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. - [Open QsJh against 9d7d in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=QsJh&p2=9d7d) - [QJo combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/qjo.md) - [97s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/97s.md) - [QJo vs 87s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjo-vs-87s.md) - [QJo vs 86s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjo-vs-86s.md) - [K9o vs 97s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/k9o-vs-97s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed Each figure is a complete count over boards. Take the 48 specific deals, group them by suit pattern, deal all 1,712,304 boards against each, and compare the two seven-card hands. Equity counts a tie as half a win; the flop rows use every one of a board's ten flops. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [QJo vs 87s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjo-vs-87s.md) - [QJo vs 86s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjo-vs-86s.md) - [K9o vs 97s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/k9o-vs-97s.md)