--- title: "QQ vs 99: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qq-vs-99.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qq-vs-99" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "QQ is a big favorite over 99 before the flop: 81.19% to 18.81% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qq-vs-88.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qq-vs-aks.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/jj-vs-99.md"] --- # QQ vs 99: preflop equity QQ is a big favorite over 99 before the flop: 81.19% to 18.81% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Averaged over every possible board, QQ is ahead of 99 by 62.38 points of equity, 81.19% to 18.81%. ## QQ against 99: the numbers **Exact preflop results for QQ against 99, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | QQ | 80.992 | 0.396 | 18.612 | 81.190 | | 99 | 18.612 | 0.396 | 80.992 | 18.810 | 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. **Boards behind the percentages: 61,642,944 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | QQ | 49,926,000 | 244,000 | 11,473,000 | | 99 | 11,473,000 | 244,000 | 49,926,000 | 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. **QQ against 99 read as odds** | Hand | Equity as odds (to 1) | Wins one deal in | Loses one deal in | Pot odds needed to call (to 1) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | QQ | 4.316 | 1.235 | 5.373 | 0.232 | | 99 | 0.232 | 5.373 | 1.235 | 4.316 | 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. **QQ against 99 by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | QQ wins | Ties | 99 wins | QQ equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 24.595 | 83.531 | 0.173 | 16.296 | 83.618 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 6.314 | 68.846 | 1.101 | 30.053 | 69.396 | | Two-tone | 46.363 | 79.958 | 0.348 | 19.694 | 80.132 | | Monotone | 5.152 | 74.676 | 1.726 | 23.598 | 75.539 | | Paired | 17.576 | 86.380 | 0.194 | 13.426 | 86.477 | 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. **QQ and 99 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | QQ, all flops | 81.190 | 79.925 | +1.265 | 1.01583 | | QQ, rainbow, ten or higher | 83.618 | 79.925 | +3.693 | 1.04621 | | QQ, rainbow, nine or lower | 69.396 | 79.925 | -10.529 | 0.86826 | | QQ, two-tone | 80.132 | 79.925 | +0.207 | 1.00259 | | QQ, monotone | 75.539 | 79.925 | -4.386 | 0.94512 | | QQ, paired | 86.477 | 79.925 | +6.552 | 1.08198 | | 99, all flops | 18.810 | 72.057 | -53.247 | 0.26104 | | 99, rainbow, ten or higher | 16.382 | 72.057 | -55.675 | 0.22735 | | 99, rainbow, nine or lower | 30.604 | 72.057 | -41.453 | 0.42472 | | 99, two-tone | 19.868 | 72.057 | -52.189 | 0.27573 | | 99, monotone | 24.461 | 72.057 | -47.596 | 0.33947 | | 99, paired | 13.523 | 72.057 | -58.534 | 0.18767 | ## 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. **QQ against 99 by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | QQ wins | Ties | 99 wins | QQ equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 30 | 83.33 | 81.119 | 0.412 | 18.469 | 81.325 | | No shared suit | 6 | 16.67 | 80.358 | 0.316 | 19.326 | 80.516 | ## 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](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=QsQh&p2=9d9c) - [QQ combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/qq.md) - [99 combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/99.md) - [QQ vs 88](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qq-vs-88.md) - [QQ vs AKs](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qq-vs-aks.md) - [JJ vs 99](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/jj-vs-99.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed Each figure is a complete count over boards. Take the 36 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 - [QQ vs 88: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qq-vs-88.md) - [QQ vs AKs: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qq-vs-aks.md) - [JJ vs 99: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/jj-vs-99.md)