nuts

The nuts is the unbeatable strongest made hand on the current board. River nuts are absolutely fixed; "flop nuts" or "turn nuts" are currently strongest but can be exceeded by future cards.

Detailed Explanation

Determining the nuts requires looking at the best 5-card combination among all 7 cards (5 board + 2 hole). Examples:

• Board Kh Qh Jh 8h 7h (5 hearts) → nuts is the Ah-X straight flush (with 9h-Th the max version)
• Board As Ks Qs Js Ts → nuts is a royal flush, fixed
• Board 9h 9d 9s 4c 4d → nuts is quad 9s (with any 9 in hand, or 99 in hand)

"Flop nuts" example: flop 7h 6h 5h, current nuts is 8h9h (straight flush). But if the turn brings 8h, the nuts can change (9h Th makes a higher straight flush).

The nut concept's role in strategy:

1. Sizing: when you have the nuts, you can overbet for maximum value
2. Range analysis: the nut share of your range determines nut advantage
3. River decisions: if you're not nuts, you have to consider how many nut combos are in the opponent's range
4. Blockers: hands that block the opponent's nuts make bluffs more believable

"Near-nuts" concept: strategically, the nuts, second nuts, and third nuts are usually grouped together (the top-end range), distinct from middle-strength.

Common Use Cases

• Maximizing river value: with the nuts, pick the size that pays the most
• Range vs range analysis: compare nut shares between both ranges
• Bluff candidates: hands that block the opponent's nuts (e.g. if their nuts are the nut flush, holding Ah blocks the nut flush)
• Calling threshold against overbets: how close to the nuts must your hand be to call an overbet