Pocket Pair

In Texas Hold’em, a pocket pair is a pair dealt to the player, i.e., their starting hand is made up of two cards of the same ranking.

For example, if you’re dealt two Jacks in the hole, you’ll be starting with a pocket pair of Jacks), and you have a made hand even before the flop is dealt. The higher the pocket pair is in the rankings, the stronger it is in absolute terms.

For this reason, the strongest possible hand you can get in Hold’em is pocket aces.

There are a total of 78 pocket pair combinations. The odds of being dealt any pocket pair to start a hand are 16 to 1. The odds of being dealt pocket aces (or any other specific pocket pair) are 221 to 1. This means that, on average, you can expect to get aces once every 221 hands you play.

‍