Second Pair

1. A pair of the second highest rank in a community card poker game.

Example

An example would be that Joe Cada is holding J4 offsuit. The flop is A-J-8. This means that Cada's five card hold'em hand is A-J-J-8-4 for a pair of Jacks. Because the Jack is the second highest card on the flop, Cada is said to have second pair.

Never First Pair

Although the term second pair is commonplace to poker games, nobody ever uses "first pair" to describe when they have the best possible pair. Instead top pair is the correct term to use.