Top pair
Top pair is a pair made by matching one of your hole cards with the highest card on the board.
It is the hand most single pots are won with and the hand most stacks are lost with. It beats every hand that missed the flop, which is most of them, and it loses to every two pair, set and straight, which is the part of a range that keeps betting.
The kicker decides how much it is worth. Top pair with the best kicker can play for a large pot, and top pair with a weak one usually wants the pot to stay small, because the hands that call several bets are the ones that beat it.
an example
your cards
board
Your ace pairs the highest card on the board and the king is the best kicker available. Every other ace is behind you, and the hands that are ahead are two pair and sets, which is a small part of what anybody holds.
This example is made up. The real one is in your own hand history: find top pair in your own hands and see how often it came up and what it cost you.
related terms
Kicker
A kicker is a card in your hand that does not form part of the pair or other combination, but is still counted when two ...
Second pair
Second pair is a pair made with the second highest card on the board, which usually means a hand worth one bet rather th ...
One pair
One pair is two cards of the same rank with three unmatched cards alongside them, ranked first by the pair and then by t ...
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Knowing the word is not the same as seeing it.
All ten hands in order, with how often each one turns up.