“The Nuts”
When you have “the nuts” you are holding the best hand possible. In flop games that means when you consider all the possible hands using the community cards, you are the stone cold, no chance for anyone else, absolute winner. Players will often say “the nuts” or “I got the nuts” when they roll over their hands.
If a Hold’em board was AcQh9s7hJd, then the best possible hand is a ace high straight and you would have “the nuts” if your down cards were K10. Now in this case it is possible that two or more player have the best hand with different combinations of K10. But change one suit on that board and you change the nuts. Make that Jd into the Jh and now the nuts would be any hand with the ace of hearts and another heart. The ace high heart flush would be “the nuts” and beat out the ace high straight. You will often hear the highest possible flush referred to as the “nut flush”. Same with the highest straight being the “nut straight”.
Be careful when playing to a “nut flush” or a nut flush draw. If the board is 7h8hKh, then two hearts in your hand makes a flush and two hearts including the ace makes the “nut flush”. But suppose the board finishes 7h8hKh-2c9h; while your ace high flush is still a good hand, it is no longer the “nut flush” because 5h6h, 6h10h and 10hJh all make straight flushes which would be the winning “nut flush”.
“The Nuts” is, of course, a monster hand and should be played to maximize your potential winnings. Often players will slowdown when they hit “the nuts” and try to give their opponents a chance to make some kind of a hand, otherwise “the nuts” may not make you any money and you will be saying: “Ah Nuts!”
-This is Beginner’s Poker Blog Post #73
