query mysql, count & pagination

Hi there.

I’m trying to figure out a way to pull articles by a vote rating stored in my database (displayed highest to lowest) then display the articles in my theme using a count, and finally, have pagination enabled with the default wordpress previous and next buttons.

I have a three column layout, and using a count I do two articles in the first column, end, then move to the second column, do another two articles, then move to the third and final column.

// do the vote database query part
<?php
$query_sql = "SELECT like_pid FROM " . $wpdb->prefix ."likes_count ORDER BY like_count DESC";
$query_result = $wpdb->get_col( $wpdb->prepare ($query_sql, OBJECT));
if ($query_result) {
foreach ($query_result as $post_id) {
$post = &get_post( $post_id );
setup_postdata($post); ?>

// do the count, count/display two articles then move on
<?php $count++; ?>
<?php if ($count%2== 0) : ?>

//count two articles off (content)

<?php else : ?>

//do something else 

<?php endif;?>

So far I’ve managed to pull the info needed but the count is messed up and I’m still not sure how pagination will fit into the query. I could be going about this all wrong anyway. Thanks for any advice.