--- title: "QTs vs 97s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qts-vs-97s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qts-vs-97s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "QTs is a big favorite over 97s before the flop: 64.47% to 35.53% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qts-vs-87s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qts-vs-86s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a4s-vs-97s.md"] --- # QTs vs 97s: preflop equity QTs is a big favorite over 97s before the flop: 64.47% to 35.53% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Counting every board, the equity split is 64.47% for QTs and 35.53% for 97s, so QTs leads by 28.94 points. ## QTs against 97s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for QTs against 97s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | QTs | 64.019 | 0.901 | 35.080 | 64.469 | | 97s | 35.080 | 0.901 | 64.019 | 35.531 | QTs and 97s are both suited hands. Neither hand shares a rank with the other, so this is a contest of high cards, connection and suits. That is a modest edge, the kind that shows up over many hands and is easy to miss in one. About 0.90% of boards chop the pot, which is why equity sits slightly above the win figure for both hands. The hand ranking puts QTs at 34 and 97s at 94 out of 169 starting hands. **Boards behind the percentages: 27,396,864 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | QTs | 17,539,000 | 247,000 | 9,611,000 | | 97s | 9,611,000 | 247,000 | 17,539,000 | The total is exact: 16 specific deals times 1,712,304 boards. The three counts are approximate, worked out from the percentages to five decimals and rounded to the nearest thousand. **QTs 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) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | QTs | 1.814 | 1.562 | 2.851 | 0.551 | | 97s | 0.551 | 2.851 | 1.562 | 1.814 | 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 Split by what the flop looks like, QTs peaks at 71.09% on rainbow flops topped by a ten or better and bottoms out at 41.82% on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower). 97s takes over on low rainbow flops (nine high or lower), so the favorite before the flop is the underdog on those boards. **QTs against 97s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | QTs wins | Ties | 97s wins | QTs equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 24.595 | 70.852 | 0.468 | 28.680 | 71.086 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 6.314 | 41.598 | 0.435 | 57.967 | 41.815 | | Two-tone | 46.727 | 63.707 | 0.424 | 35.869 | 63.919 | | Monotone | 5.273 | 59.529 | 3.519 | 36.952 | 61.288 | | Paired | 17.091 | 64.703 | 2.196 | 33.101 | 65.801 | 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 Each hand has a baseline against a random hand: 59.47% for QTs, 49.12% for 97s. Here the change is +5.00 and -13.59 points. **QTs 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | QTs, all flops | 64.469 | 59.468 | +5.001 | 1.08410 | | QTs, rainbow, ten or higher | 71.086 | 59.468 | +11.618 | 1.19537 | | QTs, rainbow, nine or lower | 41.815 | 59.468 | -17.653 | 0.70315 | | QTs, two-tone | 63.919 | 59.468 | +4.451 | 1.07485 | | QTs, monotone | 61.288 | 59.468 | +1.820 | 1.03060 | | QTs, paired | 65.801 | 59.468 | +6.333 | 1.10649 | | 97s, all flops | 35.531 | 49.118 | -13.587 | 0.72338 | | 97s, rainbow, ten or higher | 28.914 | 49.118 | -20.204 | 0.58866 | | 97s, rainbow, nine or lower | 58.185 | 49.118 | +9.067 | 1.18460 | | 97s, two-tone | 36.081 | 49.118 | -13.037 | 0.73458 | | 97s, monotone | 38.712 | 49.118 | -10.406 | 0.78814 | | 97s, paired | 34.199 | 49.118 | -14.919 | 0.69626 | ## Does a shared suit matter? Two kinds of deal exist here. In 4 of them the hands share a suit and QTs holds 67.00%. In 12 they do not, and it holds 63.63%. QTs does better with a shared suit, by 3.37 points. **QTs against 97s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | QTs wins | Ties | 97s wins | QTs equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 4 | 25.00 | 66.499 | 0.997 | 32.504 | 66.997 | | No shared suit | 12 | 75.00 | 63.192 | 0.869 | 35.939 | 63.626 | ## How often this matchup comes up This page stands for 16 specific-card matchups (0.0010% of 1,624,350 ordered deals), or 32 once you count the seats both ways (0.0020%). ## A worked example Say each player puts $100 in before the flop, making a $200 pot. On average QTs takes back $128.94 of it, which is $28.94 more than it put in, and 97s takes back $71.06, $28.94 less than it put in. Scaled to 1,000 deals, that is roughly 640 wins for QTs, 351 for 97s and 9 chopped pots. ## The same matchup from the other side Read it from the other side: 97s against QTs is the same matchup with the numbers swapped, so 97s holds 35.53% and QTs holds 64.47%. That address sends you back to this page. ## Keep exploring Try QsTs 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 QsTs against 9h7h in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=QsTs&p2=9h7h) - [QTs combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/qts.md) - [97s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/97s.md) - [QTs vs 87s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qts-vs-87s.md) - [QTs vs 86s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qts-vs-86s.md) - [A4s vs 97s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a4s-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 - [QTs vs 87s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qts-vs-87s.md) - [QTs vs 86s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qts-vs-86s.md) - [A4s vs 97s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a4s-vs-97s.md)