Pairs is the 2nd hand in the game. It is a two card hand that requires only two cards of the same rank, so two Kings for example would make a Pair. They have a base score of 10 chips and 2 mult. They are tied to the Mercury planet card, which gives 15 chips and 1 mult when used. It is widely regarded the community to be the best hand in the game due to it’s easy to draw nature and spam potential, making it great for many Jokers in the game, especially with scaling Jokers. This in turn makes it an easy choice for a hand in higher stakes.
How to use and fix for them:
Playing Pairs is nearly the easiest hand to play, just look for two of the same cards and throw them out. And you will mainly be playing a lot of hands on a pairs build because having a scaling Joker is like the bread and butter of a pairs build. It almost feels like having a frontal lobotomy, since you’ll barely be discarding cause of how easy they are to draw. You mainly want to get lots of hands and opportunity to play lots of hands.
Fixing for them is primarily based off of what Jokers you have. If you have Blackboard, make everything Clubs and Spades. If it’s Ride The Bus, remove face cards. However there are some stuff that are pretty good to have not related to Jokers. Having gold cards for held in hand money and steels for extra score helps and it doesn’t hurt to have a few stone cards for extra chips. Primarily though, Blue seals and Purple seals are must haves. Purple seals can help you get more Chariots for steel and Death to then copy Blue seal so you have tons of copies and spam many Mercury cards to scale to the moon.
In terms of decks, it’s flexible enough to work on anything but for the most mileage, I would recommend Blue and Nebula. Blue Deck gives you one extra hand which makes scaling go even higher then the other decks. Nebula can help you scale levels on Pairs faster as you start off with Telescope and spamming Pairs is inevitable, however having 1 less consumable slot does hurt Blue Seals potential.
Strengths And Weaknesses
• Is easy to draw
• Great for Scaling Jokers
• Can be spammed
• Minimal Deck Fixing
• Works a majority of Jokers in the game
• Makes higher stakes a breeze
• May need some planet levels later in runs
Jokers I recommend to use:
| Appearance | Name | Effect |
|---|---|---|
 | Green Joker | +1 Mult per hand played -1 Mult per discard (Currently +0 Mult) |
 | Square Joker | This Joker gains +4 Chips if played hand has exactly 4 cards (Currently +0 Chips) |
 | Burglar | When Blind is selected, gain+3 Hands and lose all Discards |
 | Burnt Joker | Upgrade the level of the first discarded poker hand each round |
 | Card Sharp | X3 if poker hand has been played this round |
 | Obelisk | X0.2 for each hand that isn’t you most played poker hand |
 | Supernova | Gains mult based on the amount of times played poker has been played this run |
 | Blackboard | X3 Mult if cards held in hand are Club and Spades |
 | Ride The Bus | +1 Mult for hand without a scoring face card (Currently +0 Mult) |
Jokers I would recommend not to use:
| Appearances | Name | Effect |
|---|---|---|
 | Splash | Every played card counts in scoring |
 | Troubador | +2 hand size -1 Hand each round |
