Q9o

Q9o (queen-nine offsuit) wins 55.4% of the time against a single random opponent, which places it 56th out of the 169 starting hands — the top 33.1% of the range. At a six-handed table (five opponents) its equity falls to 18.9% and its rank moves to 59; nine-handed (eight opponents) it holds 12.0% for rank 77. Two unconnected offsuit cards — the class of hand most often overvalued.

Its suited/offsuit twin Q9s runs at 57.7% (rank 41), a gap of 2.3 points. Losing the shared suit costs 2.3 points of raw equity. The hand directly above it in the ranking is J9s at 55.7%, and directly below is JTo at 55.3%, so three hands are packed into a band of 0.4 points.

Played heads-up against each of the other 168 hands, Q9o is a favourite against 104 of them and an underdog against 64. Its best matchup is 92o at 75.9% and its worst is QQ at 9.4% — a spread of 66.5 points, which is why calling Q9o simply "strong" or "weak" says very little. 1 opponents land inside one point of a coinflip, the closest being 22 at 49.2%.

Q9o dominates 8 hands that share one of its ranks, pushing hardest against 92o at 75.9%. It is dominated by 8 hands in return, the worst of them AQs, which leaves Q9o with only 24.2%. 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 19 of 78. The strongest hand in that group, AKo, is 10 points away, and the weakest, 32o, sits 23.1 points below. Measured against the average equity of all 169 hands, 51%, Q9o lands +4.4 points from the middle of the pack, and 55 hands in the full ranking are still ahead of it.

Adding players costs equity steadily: 55.4% against one opponent, 37.3% against two, 22.8% against four and 12.0% against eight. That last figure is 108% of an even nine-way share (11.1%). The Chen formula scores this hand at 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 Q9o reads as 55.4% 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.

Q9o 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) 18.9%. 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 4.00% and a four-out gutshot 13.4%. By the river a straight using a hole card completes 5.60% of the time.

Put together, Q9o flops a pair or better or a strong draw (an eight-out straight draw) 36.6% of the time — rank 101 of the 156 unpaired hands (tied with 3 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, Q9o goes from 55.4% before the flop up to 77.4% when either card pairs, and down to 44.8% when both miss. It connects 32.4% of the time (6,356 of 19,600 flops). Missing with a card above Q on board leaves 46.8%; missing with nothing above Q leaves 43.1%.

By board shape: rainbow 55.7%, two-tone 55.1%, monotone 55.1%. A monotone flop in one of your suits gives 64.3%. A paired board gives 54.8%, and a connected board (three ranks within five) 53.4%. The best row in the table is "Either card hits (a matching rank on the flop)" at 77.4%, the worst "and nothing above Q" at 43.1%.

The 55.4% 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 55.36% (a gap of 0.04 points). Each equity is taken with the flop out and the turn and river still to come.