QQ vs 99: preflop equity

QQ against 99: the numbers

Here pocket pairs face each other, QQ on one side and 99 on the other. A pair against a smaller pair is the classic crush: the smaller pair needs one of its two remaining cards to make a set.

A gap this wide means 99 is in trouble before the flop and has few good runouts. A split pot comes up on 0.40% of boards, so the wins and the equity differ by half of that.

For context, QQ sits at number 3 of 169 starting hands and 99 at number 6 when each is run against a random hand.

36 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.

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

Across the five flop textures QQ's equity moves by 17.08 points, from 69.40% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) to 86.48% on paired flops. QQ stays ahead on all five textures, but the swing between them is large, so how the flop looks matters a great deal.

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, QQ holds 79.93% and 99 holds 72.06%. Facing each other changes that by +1.26 points for QQ and -53.25 points for 99.

Does a shared suit matter?

Looking only at deals where the hands share a suit, QQ has 81.33%; looking only at deals where they do not, 80.52%. QQ does better with a shared suit, by 0.81 points.

How often this matchup comes up

Counting specific cards, QQ against 99 appears in 36 of the 1,624,350 ordered heads-up deals (0.0022%), and in 72 when the seats are swapped too (0.0044%).

A worked example

Say each player puts $100 in before the flop, making a $200 pot. On average QQ takes back $162.38 of it, which is $62.38 more than it put in, and 99 takes back $37.62, $62.38 less than it put in.

In 1,000 deals of exactly this matchup, expect about 810 won outright by QQ, about 186 won outright by 99 and about 4 split.

The same matchup from the other side

99 against QQ adds nothing new: it is 18.81% for 99 and 81.19% for QQ, the same figures reversed.

Keep exploring

Open the calculator with QsQh against 9d9c 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 QsQh against 9d9c in the equity calculator
• QQ combos
• 99 combos
• QQ vs 88
• QQ vs AKs
• JJ vs 99
• All hand matchups