--- title: "QTs vs Q9s: preflop equity" url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qts-vs-q9s.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qts-vs-q9s" last_updated: "2026-10-23" type: "reference" summary: "QTs is a big favorite over Q9s before the flop: 69.08% to 30.92% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit." related: ["https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qts-vs-jts.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qts-vs-a2s.md", "https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a4s-vs-q9s.md"] --- # QTs vs Q9s: preflop equity QTs is a big favorite over Q9s before the flop: 69.08% to 30.92% equity, counted exactly over every board, with the split by flop type and suit. Over all 1,712,304 boards that can follow this deal, QTs finishes with 69.08% of the pot and Q9s with 30.92%. ## QTs against Q9s: the numbers **Exact preflop results for QTs against Q9s, in percent** | Hand | Wins | Ties | Loses | Equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | QTs | 64.249 | 9.657 | 26.094 | 69.077 | | Q9s | 26.094 | 9.657 | 64.249 | 30.923 | Here suited hands face each other, QTs on one side and Q9s on the other. The two hands share a rank, and the one with the better other card dominates: it wins most kicker battles when that shared rank hits. That is a clear edge, 69.08% to 30.92%, but Q9s still wins often enough that one hand proves nothing. Ties are 9.66% of the outcomes here; each tied board gives both hands half the pot. By strength against a random hand, QTs holds place 34 of 169 and Q9s holds place 43. **Boards behind the percentages: 20,547,648 counted in all** | Hand | Boards won, about | Boards tied, about | Boards lost, about | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | QTs | 13,202,000 | 1,984,000 | 5,362,000 | | Q9s | 5,362,000 | 1,984,000 | 13,202,000 | The board total is exact, 12 deals at 1,712,304 boards each. Won, tied and lost counts are rounded to the nearest thousand from the five-decimal percentages. **QTs against Q9s 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 | 2.234 | 1.556 | 3.832 | 0.448 | | Q9s | 0.448 | 3.832 | 1.556 | 2.234 | The last column is the smallest pot odds, written as a pot-to-call ratio, at which a call breaks even with this equity. ## Who is ahead on which flops QTs prefers rainbow flops topped by a ten or better, where it holds 74.44%, and likes low rainbow flops (nine high or lower) least, where it holds 63.38%. QTs stays ahead on all five textures. **QTs against Q9s by flop texture, in percent** | Flop | Share of flops | QTs wins | Ties | Q9s wins | QTs equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rainbow, ten or higher | 23.867 | 70.046 | 8.781 | 21.173 | 74.436 | | Rainbow, nine or lower | 7.042 | 62.055 | 2.639 | 35.306 | 63.375 | | Two-tone | 46.543 | 65.671 | 6.673 | 27.656 | 69.007 | | Monotone | 5.215 | 59.516 | 7.784 | 32.700 | 63.408 | | Paired | 17.333 | 54.766 | 22.288 | 22.946 | 65.910 | Rainbow flops have three suits, two-tone flops repeat one suit, monotone flops are all one suit, and paired flops repeat a rank. ## Compared with a random hand How much does the opponent matter? Compared with its random-hand 59.47%, QTs changes by +9.61 points, and Q9s, from 57.66%, by -26.74. **QTs and Q9s 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 | 69.077 | 59.468 | +9.609 | 1.16158 | | QTs, rainbow, ten or higher | 74.436 | 59.468 | +14.968 | 1.25170 | | QTs, rainbow, nine or lower | 63.375 | 59.468 | +3.907 | 1.06570 | | QTs, two-tone | 69.007 | 59.468 | +9.539 | 1.16041 | | QTs, monotone | 63.408 | 59.468 | +3.940 | 1.06625 | | QTs, paired | 65.910 | 59.468 | +6.442 | 1.10833 | | Q9s, all flops | 30.923 | 57.664 | -26.741 | 0.53626 | | Q9s, rainbow, ten or higher | 25.564 | 57.664 | -32.100 | 0.44333 | | Q9s, rainbow, nine or lower | 36.625 | 57.664 | -21.039 | 0.63514 | | Q9s, two-tone | 30.993 | 57.664 | -26.671 | 0.53748 | | Q9s, monotone | 36.592 | 57.664 | -21.072 | 0.63457 | | Q9s, paired | 34.090 | 57.664 | -23.574 | 0.59118 | ## Does a shared suit matter? QTs and Q9s never overlap in suit in a legal deal, so the whole matchup sits in the no-shared-suit row. **QTs against Q9s by suit overlap, in percent** | Deals | Specific deals | Share of deals | QTs wins | Ties | Q9s wins | QTs equity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Share a suit | 0 | 0.00 | not possible | not possible | not possible | not possible | | No shared suit | 12 | 100.00 | 64.249 | 9.657 | 26.094 | 69.077 | ## How often this matchup comes up You will meet this exact matchup 0.0015% of the time in a random heads-up deal: 24 of 1,624,350, counting either seat order. ## A worked example Put $100 each into a $200 pot and deal every board once: QTs averages $138.16 back, ahead of its $100 by $38.16, while Q9s averages $61.84, short of its $100 by $38.16. In 1,000 deals of exactly this matchup, expect about 642 won outright by QTs, about 261 won outright by Q9s and about 97 split. ## The same matchup from the other side If you came looking for Q9s against QTs, the numbers are the same with the hands swapped: 30.92% and 69.08%. ## Keep exploring Open the calculator with QsTs against Qh9h 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 QsTs against Qh9h in the equity calculator](https://georgelipoker.com/tools/equity-calculator.md#p1=QsTs&p2=Qh9h) - [QTs combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/qts.md) - [Q9s combos](https://georgelipoker.com/combos/q9s.md) - [QTs vs JTs](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qts-vs-jts.md) - [QTs vs A2s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qts-vs-a2s.md) - [A4s vs Q9s](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a4s-vs-q9s.md) - [All hand matchups](https://georgelipoker.com/equity.md) ## How this was computed This is an exact count with no sampling. For the 12 ways to deal one QTs and one Q9s without reusing a card, grouped by suit pattern, every one of the 1,712,304 possible boards is dealt and both seven-card hands are compared. A tie counts as half a win in the equity column, and each board is counted once under each of its ten three-card flops. Source: our own exact count from the GeorgeLiPoker poker math library. No outside data is used. ## Related - [QTs vs JTs: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qts-vs-jts.md) - [QTs vs A2s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/qts-vs-a2s.md) - [A4s vs Q9s: preflop equity](https://georgelipoker.com/equity/a4s-vs-q9s.md)