Poker glossary
The nuts
The best possible hand given the current board.
Also: nuts, nut flush, nut hand
The nuts is the best possible hand at that moment, given the community cards. If you hold the nuts, no other player can beat you; at most, someone ties you.
How to find the nuts
Check the board from the top of the hand rankings down:
- Is a straight flush possible? (Three cards of one suit close enough together.)
- Is four of a kind or a full house possible? (Only if the board is paired.)
- Is a flush possible? (Three or more cards of one suit.)
- Is a straight possible? (Three cards that fit inside a five-card run.)
- If none of these, the nuts is the top set: three of a kind with the highest board card.
Example: the board is K♠ Q♠ 7♦ 4♠ 2♣. There’s no pair, so no full house or four of a kind. No straight flush is possible either. Three spades are out, so the nuts is the ace-high flush: the A♠ with any other spade. That’s the nut flush.
The nuts changes every street
- Flop J♥ T♦ 4♣: no straight or flush is possible yet, so the nuts is a set of jacks.
- Turn Q♠: now A-K makes an ace-high straight, the new nuts.
- River 4♥: the board pairs, so pocket fours make four of a kind. That’s the nuts now.
Related terms
- Second nuts: the second-best possible hand.
- Nut draw: a draw that makes the nuts if it hits, like the nut flush draw.
- Flopped the nuts: having the best possible hand as soon as the flop is dealt.
In Omaha, hands reach showdown with the nuts far more often, which is why drawing to the nuts matters so much there. Practise spotting it in the PLO nuts trainer.