Pose estimation is a key issue in mobile robots and important to moving objects tracking. In this paper, we present a tangent based hybrid pose estimation algorithm with real-time performance using range data from a laser radar, which consists of Iterative Tangent weighted Closest Point (ITCP) and Hough transform based Tangent Angle Histogram (HTAH) algorithms to overcome problems with past methods, such as local minimum, aperture-like, and high computation problem, etc. This algorithm has been tested on both synthetic and real range data in outdoor environment. Experimental results demonstrate its high accuracy, low computation, wide applicability and high robustness to aperture-like problem, occlusion and noises.