I know I must be missing something here -- something so obvious that I'm not seeing it. I have read from two reliable sources that when a three-of-a-kind is on the board, the nut hand would be quads. Is this correct? What if the board was as follows --

6d 6h 6s 7s 8s

Granted, whoever was holding the 6c in the hole would have quads, but what if someone's hole cards were the 9s and Ts? Wouldn't that person have a straight flush, beating the quads?

PLEASE tell me what I'm not seeing here. I often cannot see the forest for the trees. THANKS.

Ten spade / nine spade is the nuts

High Card > High Pair > Top 2 Pair >Top 3 of a Kind >Top Full House >Top 4 of a Kind >Top Straight Straight Flush > Royal Flush

Learn the basics


I am def going to announce top straight flush next time I get it

Agreed. It's rare that someone catches a straight flush, so maybe they're considering that? Even so, I wouldn't call quads 'the nuts' with a straight flush out there.

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This is true, as long as a straight flush isn't possible. You don't need 3 of a kind on board to make quads possible, as a pair on board would allow it.

You should just start with the ranking of poker hands. Then, figure out the best possible hand on a given board. With a little practice, figuring out the nuts is easy. Memorizing stuff like "when a three-of-a-kind is on the board, the nut hand would be quads" is too hard. Mentally, you could go like

• Is a straight flush possible? If yes, the biggest one is the nuts.
• Are quads possible? If yes, then the biggest one is the nuts.
• etc

There aren't that many possible nut hands. For fun trivia, what's the worst possible nut hand in hold'em? This peeves me. A royal is just an A high SF, not a new kind of hand. You don't call A's full a different kind of FH. Also as far as nuts go, many of these card rankings can't be nutted.

THANKS TO ALL. It's good to know I haven't completely "lost it"!

23458, unsuited???? Nuts to 23457 unsuited.

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I guess the key question is what are those reliable sources, and what exactly did they say. Anyone with a little knowledge of poker knows hand rankings, and knows that a straight flush beats 4 of a kind. Similarly, anyone who knows anything about holdem knows that if there are 3 of a kind on the board, if you have one more of that it is quads, and you can't beat it unless you have a straight flush.

In other words, nobody who knows the game would be saying quads is the nuts on the board you've described. So they either aren't reliable or you are misinterpreting what they've said, or they have made a silly mistake.

Going to guess, a set, JJ, QQ or KK, something like that.

Just saw DougL's question -- what is the worst nut hand? I can only guess that it would be this ...

Well, I got to thinking, and my initial answer to that question, after some thought, does not hold up. Let us know, DougL! Sorry I don't have much experience in this.

It's royal baby.

2378Q?

For the answer to the question, build the board that goes along with it.

Someone suggested this board
Any 76 makes a straight. So, on this board the nuts is an 8 high straight. I can beat this with A2345, still making 67 the nuts, but the nut hand is a 7 high str8.

This is a good guess. If you build the boards, it will quickly become apparent. The why is interesting, because you have to carefully build the boards to see why some other hand isn't the nuts.

hehe
Winner

For people who don't see why, it will help board reading skills to understand. Why can't a J high board have 3 of a kind as nuts?

Think I got the winner. I did not try too hard with boards, but when I get a moment, will look if anything else, but don't think so.


EDIT: WINNER! I ARE

Those oddball straights are the things you need to look out for.

Can't you read the question 2 ways?

A) what is the worst starting hand that can still be the nuts?

B) what is the hand/board that gives you the worst poker hand that is the nuts?

I read it originally like B. So starting with the worst hands possible. 2 pair can never be the nuts because there can be a set with any board. So I went looking for sets. I eliminated any straights. The worst board that can't have a straight is:

2, 3, 7, 8, Q.

So in that case QQ is the nuts.

I went deep down that rabbit hole way back when and I found that there are so few boards that make top set the nuts that I convinced myself to stop slowplaying sets till the river.

You could read it that way. Given how 2 card poker works, every hand can be the nuts. 23o can be nutted on a 222JT board. Take your rando 2 card hand, make it quads, and make a board with no SF. ez game The answer here is all of them, once you build a board.
Yes. The illustration here is that if no SF is possible and the board isn't paired, you're looking to see if a flush is possible. If not, then is a str8 possible? If no, then top set. Top set is the worst nut hand on any board. There are actually few boards that eliminate straights, as Bob pointed out.

Play some O/8 or PLO/8, and looking at boards will become second nature.

I just started making a list of them. I might have missed a couple or made some schoolboy errors and included some boards where straights are actually possible (it's late and I'm tired), but this is what I came up with:

AK984
AK983
AK982
AK974
AK973
AK972
AK963
AK962
AQ984
AQ983
AQ982
AQ974
AQ973
AQ972
AQ862
AQ762
AJ862
AJ762
KQ873
KQ872
KQ863
KQ862
KQ853
KQ852
KQ842
KQ832
KQ742
KQ732
KJ863
KJ862
KJ853
KJ852
KJ843
KJ842
KJ832
KJ762
KJ752
KJ742
KJ732
KT853
KT852
KT842
KT832
KT752
KT732
K9843
K9842
K9832
K9742
K9732
QJ762
QJ752
QJ742
QJ732
QT752
QT742
QT732
Q9742
Q9732
Q8732

Technically 95ss is also the nuts /nit

lol... so true 74

That's a whole other thing, card removal with our hand can change the nuts.

Eventually we are talking about reverse future blockers.