Two in a hand

DEUCE

This card value beats an ace in some games and sounds like a pair you might hold in tennis.

Two in a hand" plays on the double meaning of "deuce." In card games, a deuce is the two-spotted card, so you’d literally hold two of them in a hand. The word also sounds like "two-s," reinforcing the idea of the number two. It’s a straightforward pun where the answer fits both the numerical and card-related hints.