nut hand

The nut hand is the best possible hand in a given situation.

The following table shows the probability of the nut hand for the board on the flop, turn and river.

Both players have an ace-high straight, the current nut hand, and so they will most likely split the pot.

However, any player with K-7 knows that he has the nut hand as it is impossible for another player to have two kings.

This makes some nut hands very vulnerable in nine-card games, such as Omaha hold 'em.

Also, despite the rarity of straight flushes at showdown, 10% of the boards will have one as the nut hand by the river.

The hands in the table are listed in order of the probability of having the nut hand on the river, from highest probability to lowest.

See Poker probability (Omaha) for a discussion of making low nut hands in Omaha hold 'em.

The term applies mostly to community card poker games where the individual holding the strongest possible hand, with the given board of community cards, is capable of knowing that they have the nut hand.

Terms such as "nut flush" or "nut full house" may be used to refer to the strongest hand possible in a particular category, even though it may not be the nut hand overall.

Under the circumstances of this example: Worm will bet his nut hand 2 times, for every one time he bluffs against Mike's hand (assuming Mike's hand would lose to the nuts and beat a bluff).

It is important to note that the actual nut hand may not be the same as the absolute nut hand; for example, if the board is 2 K a player with K has the absolute nut hand.