Not sure how useful this would be to know, but I can't figure it out

[jonnyd]

what is the probability that two people get dealt the same hand at a full 10 handed table?

for instance one gets AT and the other gets AT

should i be using combinatorics or what?

any help would be greatly appreciated

[AaronBrown]

Yes, you should be using combinatorics.

After you look at your two cards, there are 50*49/2 = 1,225 different hands a single opponent might hold. If you have a pair, there is 1 way for another opponent to have the same cards. If you have two different suited cards, there are 3 ways for an opponent to have the same hand. If you have two different unsuited cards, there are 7 ways for an opponent to have the same hand.

To compute exactly the probability of 1 out of 9 opponents has the same hand is a bit tedious (but not too hard if you want to do it). A good approximation is to use 1 - (1-X)^9 where X is the probability of a single opponent having the same hand.

[jonnyd]

thank you very much for pointing me in the right direction

much appreciated!