In Texas hold 'em, a starting hand consists of two hole cards, which belong solely to the player and remain hidden from the other players. Five community cards are also dealt into play. Betting begins before any of the community cards are exposed, and continues throughout the hand. The player's "playing hand", which will be compared against that of each competing player, is the best 5-card poker hand available from his two hole cards and the five community cards. Unless otherwise specified, here the term hand applies to the player's two hole cards, or starting hand. Essentials There are 1326 distinct possible combinations of two hole cards from a standard 52-card deck in hold 'em, but since suits have no absolute value in this poker variant, many of these hands are identical in value before the flop. For example, and are identical in value, because each is a hand consisting of an ace and a jack of the same suit. Therefore, there are 169 non-equivalent starting hands in hold 'em, which is the total count of 13 pocket pairs, 13 × 12 x 1 / 2 = 78 suited hands and likewise 78 unsuited hands (13 + 78 + 78 = 169). These 169 hands are not equally likely. Hold 'em hands are sometimes classified as having one of three "shapes": Pairs, (or "pocket pairs"), which consist of two cards of the same rank (e.g. ). One hand in 17 will be a pair, each occurring with individual probability 1/221 (P(pair) = 3/51 = 1/17). Alternative means of making this calculation First Step As confirmed above. There are 1326 possible combination of opening hand. Second Step There are 6 different combos of each pair. 9h9c, 9h9s, 9h9d, 9c9s, 9c9d, 9d9s. Therefore, there are 78 possible combinations of pocket pairs (6 multiplied by 13 i.e. 22-AA) To calculate the odds of being dealt a pair 78 (the number of any particular pair being dealt. As above) divided by 1326 (possible opening hands) 78/1326 ≈ 0.0588 or 5.88% Suited hands, which contain two cards of the same suit (e.g. ). Probability of first card is 1.0 (any of the 52 cards) Probability of second hand suit matching the first: There are 13 cards per suit, and one is in your hand leaving 12 remaining of the 51 cards remaining in the deck. 12/51 ≈ 0.2353 or 23.53% Offsuit hands, which contain two