Two Pair is two cards of one rank, two of another, and a fifth card, the kicker. It is the eighth strongest hand in the poker hand rankings: above One Pair and below Three of a Kind.
How it works
The hand holds two separate pairs. In Texas Hold’em it shows up constantly. Pair a board card with each of your hole cards and you have it. A pocket pair plus any other board pair works too.
When the board itself supplies both pairs, everyone still in the hand plays the same Two Pair, and the pot comes down to the kicker. A hand that looked strong on the flop can turn into a split.
What beats two pair
Seven hands beat Two Pair:
- Three of a Kind - three cards of one rank, 54,912 combinations.
- Straight - five cards in sequence, 10,200 combinations.
- Flush - five cards of one suit, 5,108 combinations.
- Full House - three of a kind plus a pair, 3,744 combinations.
- Four of a Kind - four cards of one rank, 624 combinations.
- Straight Flush and Royal Flush - 36 and 4 combinations.
Only One Pair and High Card lose to Two Pair.
Does two pair beat one pair?
Yes. Two Pair is the stronger hand and also the rarer one: 123,552 combinations against 1,098,240, a gap of about nine times. That is wide enough that the two hands rarely cause confusion at showdown.
Comparing two pair
Compare the higher pair first, then the lower pair, and finally the kicker. Aces and Kings (A-A-K-K) beats Kings and Queens (K-K-Q-Q), and Kings and Queens beats Kings and Jacks on the second pair.
There are 858 distinguishable Two Pair hands: 78 rank combinations for the pairs times the 11 ranks left for the kicker. When both players hold the same two pair, the board is supplying them and the fifth card settles it.
Probability
There are two ways to count it, and they diverge more than you would expect.
- In a five-card deal: 123,552 combinations out of 2,598,960 - that is 4.7539%, or about 1 in 21.
- In seven-card Hold’em: 31,433,400 out of 133,784,560 - that is 23.5%, or almost one hand in four played to the river.
The five-card number comes out like this:
- 78 rank pairs x 36 suit arrangements for the two pairs;
- 11 remaining ranks x 4 suits for the kicker;
- 78 x 36 x 11 x 4 = 123,552.
Out of seven cards Two Pair lands about five times more often than out of five. It goes from a rare hand to a working one: nearly a quarter of everything played to the river.