[BruceZ]

Is this your attempt to imitate Cyrus' attempt to confuse? If his was this direct, it would be a welcome change, and I would enjoy responding to it even it was just him with a different handle.


Disregarding individual suits. 13 possible ranks for the first card X 13 possible ranks for the second card = 169 combinations

13 x 13 = 169

That is a valid but confusing (to beginners)way to compute the total number of offsuit and suited hands including pairs. 13 cards for the first card, and 13 cards for the second card which can be the same as the first card to make a pair, and since we are not dividing by 2, we are counting each non-pair hand twice, which counts both suited and offsuit cards. The more normal way is to count 13*12/2 = 78 offsuit hands and 78 suited hands, and then add 13 pairs and you get 169 total hands. I suspect, based on your smiley and the second calculation, that you thought you were wrong? Or trying to lure me into arguing incorrectly? Am I fighting monkeys, or only shadows? (Circle of Iron reference).


To calculate the number of possible hands and taking the suit into account, the calculation would be 52 possible cards for the first card X 51 possible cards for the second card = 2652 individual two card hands are all that there is possible from a standard 52 card deck.

52 X 51 = 2652

You have to divide that by 2, or else you will count every hand twice depending on the order you got the two cards. 52*51/2 = 1326.