One pair is a poker hand such as 4♥ 4♠ K♠ 10♦ 5♠, which contains two cards of the same rank, plus three unmatched cards. It ranks above any no pair hand, but below all other poker hands. There are 1,098,240 possible one pair hands, so the odds of getting one pair given a five card hand are 481:352 or approximately 1.37:1.

Between two such hands, the hand with the higher ranking pair wins. If two hands have the same rank of pair, the third card in each hand (called the kicker or side card) is compared in the manner as no-pair hands.

Examples:

• 10♣ 10♠ 6♠ 4♥ 2♥ ("pair of tens") defeats 9♥ 9♣ A♥ Q♦ 10♦ ("pair of nines")
• 10♥ 10♦ J♦ 3♥ 2♣ ("tens with jack kicker") defeats 10♣ 10♠ 6♠ 4♥ 2♥
• 2♦ 2♥ 8♠ 5♣ 4♣ ("pair of deuces, eight-five-four") pushes against2♣ 2♠ 8♣ 5♥ 3♥ ("deuces, eight-five-three")

In some games, the kicker becomes very important (typically community card games like Texas hold 'em), while in other games (such as draw poker) it is almost never significant. Nonetheless, it is always used if needed.

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