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Second consecutive pair from a deck

Question

From a standard 52-card deck Sam draws two cards, which turn out to have the same rank. He draws two more cards. What is the probability that this second pair also matches in rank?

Short answer

73/122573/1225. Of the 50 cards left, there are (502)=1225\binom{50}{2}=1225 equally likely pairs. Matching pairs: 1 from the two remaining cards of the first rank, plus 12(42)=7212\binom42=72 from the other ranks, so 731225\tfrac{73}{1225}.

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