A pocket pair has six physical combinations, a suited unpaired class has four, and an offsuit class has twelve before any cards are known. Known cards remove combinations; a class label is not itself one equally likely physical hand.
Known-card combo calculator
Why pairs, suited and offsuit hands have different counts
For AA, choose two of the four aces: C(4,2) = 6. AKs has one combination per suit, for four. AKo has four ace suits times three different king suits, for twelve. Together all AK hands have 16 combinations.
Across the deck there are 13 pair classes and 78 rank pairs for each of suited and offsuit. That is 169 classes, but 13 × 6 + 78 × 4 + 78 × 12 = 1,326 physical two-card hands. It also equals C(52,2).
A blocker example
If As is visible, AKs loses As Ks and has three combinations left. AKo has three available aces, each with three different-suit kings, leaving nine combinations. A visible queen does not remove an AK combination, though it can matter to other parts of a range.
With As and Ah unavailable, AA has only Ad Ac left: one combination. Duplicate physical cards are rejected so that accidentally typing As twice does not silently change the answer.
Counts are not a complete opponent model
An opponent may fold, call or raise different combinations at different frequencies. Counting six combinations does not prove they play all six. A range model needs action-based selection and weights in addition to card removal. Use this calculator to check the arithmetic before attaching a behavioural assumption.
Related tools and practice
- Read a starting-hand class chart
- Compare specific physical hands
- Five-card categories use a different sample space
Use the play-chip training table to review standard six-handed Hold'em decisions. The trainer does not play short deck.
Combination counts derived from a 52-card deck; blocker cases checked by enumerating physical suit combinations. AI-assisted explanations and calculations reviewed 30 October 2026. No result guarantees a profitable decision.