96o

96o (nine-six offsuit) wins 44.6% of the time against a single random opponent, which places it 120th out of the 169 starting hands — the top 71% of the range. At a six-handed table (five opponents) its equity falls to 13.5% and its rank moves to 129; nine-handed (eight opponents) it holds 8.5% for rank 134. Two unconnected offsuit cards — the class of hand most often overvalued.

Its suited/offsuit twin 96s runs at 47.3% (rank 104), a gap of 2.7 points. Losing the shared suit costs 2.7 points of raw equity. The hand directly above it in the ranking is 85s at 44.6%, and directly below is T5o at 44.4%, so three hands are packed into a band of 0.2 points.

Played heads-up against each of the other 168 hands, 96o is a favourite against 50 of them and an underdog against 118. Its best matchup is 62o at 72.2% and its worst is 99 at 10.2% — a spread of 62 points, which is why calling 96o simply "strong" or "weak" says very little.

96o dominates 8 hands that share one of its ranks, pushing hardest against 62o at 72.2%. It is dominated by 8 hands in return, the worst of them J9s, which leaves 96o with only 25.3%. A single kicker can move the number by tens of points, and the full table below lists every one of those opponents.

Within the 78 offsuit hands it comes 49 of 78. The strongest hand in that group, AKo, is 20.8 points away, and the weakest, 32o, sits 12.3 points below. Measured against the average equity of all 169 hands, 51%, 96o lands -6.4 points from the middle of the pack, and 119 hands in the full ranking are still ahead of it.

Adding players costs equity steadily: 44.6% against one opponent, 28.7% against two, 16.4% against four and 8.5% against eight. That last figure is 77% of an even nine-way share (11.1%). The Chen formula scores this hand at 2.5 points, and it arrives 0.9% of the time (12 of 1,326 combinations).

One caveat worth repeating: every number on this page assumes the opponent holds a completely random hand and that the pot goes to showdown. Real opponents hold ranges, and a range that has already put money in is stronger than random — which is exactly why 96o reads as 44.6% here but plays worse than that against a raise. Use the 168 rows in the table below to see which specific holdings are the problem, rather than treating the headline figure as a verdict on the hand.

96o pairs the board on the flop — at least one of its two ranks hits — 32.4% of the time, and flops top pair or better (the paired card is the highest on the board, or two pair and up) 9.53%. By the river it has made a pair or better 48.7% of the time.

For straights, the flop completes one 0.653% of the time (128 flops), gives an eight-out draw 4.98% and a four-out gutshot 14.0%. By the river a straight using a hole card completes 6.40% of the time.

Put together, 96o flops a pair or better or a strong draw (an eight-out straight draw) 37.6% of the time — rank 96 of the 156 unpaired hands (tied with 2 others). The highest is JTs, T9s, 98s and 4 others at 50.6% and the lowest AKo, A2o at 32.8%.

Against one random hand, 96o goes from 44.5% before the flop up to 68.7% when either card pairs, and down to 32.9% when both miss. It connects 32.4% of the time (6,356 of 19,600 flops). Missing with a card above 9 on board leaves 32.2%; missing with nothing above 9 leaves 36.6%.

By board shape: rainbow 44.5%, two-tone 44.4%, monotone 46.0%. A monotone flop in one of your suits gives 54.5%. A paired board gives 42.1%, and a connected board (three ranks within five) 50.0%. The best row in the table is "Either card hits (a matching rank on the flop)" at 68.7%, the worst "and at least one card above 9" at 32.2%.

The 44.6% at the top of the page is a 400,000-hand simulation; this table counts every deal of the opponent's two cards and the five-card board (2,097,572,400 per starting hand), which puts the pre-flop figure at 44.49% (a gap of 0.11 points). Each equity is taken with the flop out and the turn and river still to come.