Two pair
Two pair is two cards of one rank and two of another, ranked first by the higher pair, then by the lower one, and only then by the fifth card.
It is a strong hand and a fragile one. Of the 2,598,960 five card hands, 123,552 are two pair, which is 4.75%, and on a board that pairs later the lower of your two pairs can be pushed out of the hand entirely.
Reading it in the right order avoids a common mistake. Kings and twos beats queens and jacks, because the higher pair is compared first and the second pair never gets consulted.
an example
your cards
board
Both of your cards paired the board, giving you kings and nines. A player holding a king and a four also has two pair, and yours is higher, so the fifth card is never reached.
This example is made up. The real one is in your own hand history: find two pair in your own hands and see how often it came up and what it cost you.
related terms
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 ...
Counterfeit
A hand is counterfeited when a later community card makes part of it redundant, so the same cards that were a strong hol ...
Paired board
A paired board is one where two of the community cards share a rank, which makes full houses and four of a kind possible ...
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Knowing the word is not the same as seeing it.
Real spots where you say which hand wins, and it keeps score.