A9s

A9s (ace-nine suited) wins 62.8% of the time against a single random opponent, which places it 18th out of the 169 starting hands — the top 10.7% of the range. At a six-handed table (five opponents) its equity falls to 24.3% and its rank moves to 20; nine-handed (eight opponents) it holds 16.8% for rank 19. A suited ace — nut-flush potential on top of top-pair equity.

Its suited/offsuit twin A9o runs at 60.8% (rank 25), a gap of 2 points. Sharing a suit is worth exactly those 2 points here — nothing about the ranks changes. The hand directly above it in the ranking is 66 at 63.3%, and directly below is ATo at 62.6%, so three hands are packed into a band of 0.7 points.

Played heads-up against each of the other 168 hands, A9s is a favourite against 147 of them and an underdog against 21. Its best matchup is 92o at 77.8% and its worst is AA at 11.7% — a spread of 66.1 points, which is why calling A9s simply "strong" or "weak" says very little. 1 opponents land inside one point of a coinflip, the closest being 22 at 49.9%.

A9s dominates 8 hands that share one of its ranks, pushing hardest against 92o at 77.8%. It is dominated by 8 hands in return, the worst of them AKs, which leaves A9s with only 28.8%. 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 suited hands it comes 6 of 78. The strongest hand in that group, AKs, is 4.4 points away, and the weakest, 32s, sits 26.9 points below. Measured against the average equity of all 169 hands, 51%, A9s lands +11.8 points from the middle of the pack, and 17 hands in the full ranking are still ahead of it.

Adding players costs equity steadily: 62.8% against one opponent, 44.5% against two, 28.1% against four and 16.8% against eight. That last figure is 151% of an even nine-way share (11.1%). The Chen formula scores this hand at 7 points, and it arrives 0.3% of the time (4 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 A9s reads as 62.8% 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.

A9s 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) 23.7%. By the river it has made a pair or better 48.7% of the time.

For straights, the flop completes one 0.0000% of the time (zero flops — the two cards are too far apart), gives an eight-out draw 1.31% and a four-out gutshot 5.22%. By the river a straight using a hole card completes 2.53% of the time. For flushes, two or more of its suit land on the flop 11.8% of the time (a made flush 0.842%), and a flush is complete by the river 6.40%.

Put together, A9s flops a pair or better or a strong draw (a flush draw or an eight-out straight draw) 43.6% of the time — rank 65 of the 156 unpaired hands (tied with 6 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, A9s goes from 62.8% before the flop up to 79.7% when either card pairs, and down to 54.7% when both miss. It connects 32.4% of the time (6,356 of 19,600 flops). Nothing ranks above A, so a miss never brings an overcard.

By board shape: rainbow 62.7%, two-tone 63.2%, monotone 59.2%. Two of your suit (a flush draw) gives 72.0% (10.9% of flops), and three of your suit (a made flush) 98.2% (0.842%). A paired board gives 65.3%, and a connected board (three ranks within five) 61.4%. The best row in the table is "Three of your suit (made flush)" at 98.2%, the worst "Neither card hits" at 54.7%.

The 62.8% 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 62.78% (a gap of 0.02 points). Each equity is taken with the flop out and the turn and river still to come.