--- title: "QJs vs 97s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjs-vs-97s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjs-vs-97s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "QJs is a big favorite over 97s before the flop: 64.35% to 35.65% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjs-vs-87s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjs-vs-86s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/k9s-vs-97s.md"] --- # QJs vs 97s: preflop equity QJs is a big favorite over 97s before the flop: 64.35% to 35.65% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Dealt all in against each other, QJs takes 64.35% of the pot on average and 97s takes the other 35.65%. ## QJs against 97s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for QJs against 97s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | QJs | 63.900 | 0.907 | 35.193 | 64.354 | | 97s | 35.193 | 0.907 | 63.900 | 35.646 | Both hands are suited hands: QJs and 97s. Neither hand shares a rank with the other, so this is a contest of high cards, connection and suits. The lead is steady rather than large, and the flop still has plenty of say in who wins. 0.91% of boards are ties, so the equity of each hand is its win rate plus half of that. For context, QJs sits at number 28 of 169 starting hands and 97s at number 94 when each is run against a random hand. **Boards behind the percentages: 27,396,864 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | QJs | 17,507,000 | 248,000 | 9,642,000 | | 97s | 9,642,000 | 248,000 | 17,507,000 | 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. **QJs 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) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | QJs | 1.805 | 1.565 | 2.841 | 0.554 | | 97s | 0.554 | 2.841 | 1.565 | 1.805 | The final column gives the least the pot must offer for each unit called for a call to break even at this equity. ## Who is ahead on which flops QJs prefers rainbow flops topped by a ten or better, where it holds 71.08%, and likes low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) least, where it holds 41.25%. 97s is ahead on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower), even though it trails QJs when every flop is counted. **QJs against 97s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | QJs wins | Ties | 97s wins | QJs equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 24.595 | 70.858 | 0.446 | 28.696 | 71.081 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 6.314 | 40.967 | 0.562 | 58.471 | 41.248 | | Two-tone | 46.727 | 63.634 | 0.431 | 35.935 | 63.849 | | Monotone | 5.273 | 59.555 | 3.523 | 36.922 | 61.317 | | Paired | 17.091 | 64.428 | 2.192 | 33.380 | 65.524 | 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 The table below sets each hand against its own random-hand baseline: a change of +4.09 points for QJs, from 60.26%, and -13.47 for 97s, from 49.12%. **QJs 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | QJs, all flops | 64.354 | 60.259 | +4.095 | 1.06796 | | QJs, rainbow, ten or higher | 71.081 | 60.259 | +10.822 | 1.17959 | | QJs, rainbow, nine or lower | 41.248 | 60.259 | -19.011 | 0.68451 | | QJs, two-tone | 63.849 | 60.259 | +3.590 | 1.05958 | | QJs, monotone | 61.317 | 60.259 | +1.058 | 1.01756 | | QJs, paired | 65.524 | 60.259 | +5.265 | 1.08737 | | 97s, all flops | 35.646 | 49.118 | -13.472 | 0.72572 | | 97s, rainbow, ten or higher | 28.919 | 49.118 | -20.199 | 0.58877 | | 97s, rainbow, nine or lower | 58.752 | 49.118 | +9.634 | 1.19614 | | 97s, two-tone | 36.151 | 49.118 | -12.967 | 0.73600 | | 97s, monotone | 38.683 | 49.118 | -10.435 | 0.78755 | | 97s, paired | 34.476 | 49.118 | -14.642 | 0.70190 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Looking only at deals where the hands share a suit, QJs has 66.84%; looking only at deals where they do not, 63.53%. QJs does better with a shared suit, by 3.31 points. **QJs against 97s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | QJs wins | Ties | 97s wins | QJs equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 4 | 25.00 | 66.333 | 1.005 | 32.662 | 66.835 | | No shared suit | 12 | 75.00 | 63.090 | 0.874 | 36.036 | 63.527 | ## How often this matchup comes up You will meet this exact matchup 0.0020% of the time in a random heads-up deal: 32 of 1,624,350, counting either seat order. ## A worked example With $100 from each side, the $200 pot is split on average as $128.70 for QJs and $71.30 for 97s; the first side gains $28.70 per all-in and the second gives up $28.70. Think in thousands: about 639 of 1,000 go to QJs, about 352 go to 97s, and about 9 are chopped. ## The same matchup from the other side The reversed view, 97s against QJs, shows 35.65% for 97s and 64.35% for QJs. It is the same count, so it redirects here. ## Keep exploring Open the calculator with QsJs against 9h7h already entered, a deal with no shared suit, and change any card to try your own hand. The matchups after it each swap one hand for a nearby one in the ranking. - [Open QsJs against 9h7h in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=QsJs&p2=9h7h) - [QJs combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/qjs.md) - [97s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/97s.md) - [QJs vs 87s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjs-vs-87s.md) - [QJs vs 86s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjs-vs-86s.md) - [K9s vs 97s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/k9s-vs-97s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed The figures are counted, not estimated: 1,712,304 boards for every suit pattern of the 16 specific deals, with both seven-card hands compared each time. Equity gives half a win for a tie. For the flop rows, a board is counted once under each of the ten flops inside it. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [QJs vs 87s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjs-vs-87s.md) - [QJs vs 86s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qjs-vs-86s.md) - [K9s vs 97s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/k9s-vs-97s.md)