Dealt 3 cards. Odds of being dealt any pair?

Let's count the hands where you don't get a pair: For the first card, there are $52$ possibilities, for the second there are $48$ (since the cards of the first type are forbidden now) and for the third hand there are $44$ possibilities. Now for the hand, the order doesn't matter, so there are $$\frac{52\cdot 48\cdot 44}{6} = 18304$$ hands without a pair. Now the number of hands with a pair is $$\binom{52}{3} - 18304 = 3796.$$ Thus, the probability of getting a hand with a pair is $$\frac{3796}{22100} \approx 17.2\%.$$

EDIT: The above solution counts three of a kind as a hand with a pair. In the case that $3$ of a kind are forbidden, we have to subtract the $$\frac{52\cdot 3\cdot 2}{6} = 52$$ hands with $3$ of a kind. Now there are $$3796 - 52 = 3744$$ "good" hands, so the probability of getting a pair, but not three of a kind, is $$\frac{3744}{22100} \approx 16.9\%.$$


Assume you are dealt 3 cards in a row (so no other cards go missing from the deck between the cards you receive). The chances of getting a pair are simply 1 - (the chances of getting no pair). The first card is some card with probability 1. There are now 3 cards in the deck, which if dealt to you, would give you a pair, so the chances of not getting a pair on the second card are 48/51. Now there are 6 cards in the deck which will give you a pair if you receive them, so the chances of not getting a pair on the third card is 44/50. Overall chances of getting no pair is 1*(48/51)*(44/50), so the chances of getting a pair is 1 minus that product.


Here's another way, there are 2 ways to get a pair from 3 drawn cards:


1) Second card drawn matches first, third does not match first or second.

$$\frac{3}{51} \cdot \frac{48}{50} = \frac{144}{2550}$$

2) Second card drawn doesn't match first, third matches first or second.

$$\frac{48}{51} \cdot \frac{6}{50} = \frac{288}{2550}$$


Add the two probabilities to get:

$$ \frac{144 + 288}{2550} = \frac{432}{2550} \text{ or } 16.94\% $$