The distinction revolves around if you have the best possible hand at that point, which could conceivably be beat later, or whether you must have a hand that is unbeatable, no matter what other cards come up. Different folks seem to have different ways of looking at it.
Well anytime I’d ever thought about it I’d assumed it came from the expression “The Dogs Bollocks” which I’ve seen as “The Mutts Nuts” – refering to anything that’s just generally all round excellent.
That little leap is just my thoughts but I’m holding onto it until someone comes along with something better.
And anywhere I’ve played the ‘nuts’ refered to a hand that could be tied but not beaten.
SD
I just used my 300th post to talk about bollocks ?
I thought it might be related to “the dog’s bollocks” but AFAIK that term is very British and most Americans would look at you funny if you described something as “the dog’s bollocks”. Can any Americans confirm (or otherwise) the usage of the saying stateside?
I’ve always just used “nut” as sort of a relative term.
There might be a flush possible on the board, and you can turn over your hand, and say, “no flush, but I have the nut straight.”
Similarly, “I had the nut flush on the turn, but when the river card paired the board, I knew he had me.”
I agree that it might not make a lot of sense to refer to the “nut straight” when there’s a flush possible, but it’s really just a shorthand way of referring to which straight you have.
“THE NUTS” is usually just reserved for the best hand on the river.
I haven’t heard anyone refer to AA before the hand starts as the “nuts”, even though it’s consistent with the other usage I’ve mentioned here.
So some say the nut just refers to the relative strength of your hand against other similar hands, like an A high straight is a nut straight.
I haven’t gone by that definition, the definition of the nut hand to me is, when your hand is the best possible hand that can be made by using all the up cards. Sometimes all the up cards don’t have to be showing, because no matter what the other up cards are, you can’t be beat (only possibly tied in some cases).
FWIW, the TV announcers use the definition offered by Sam Stone and I.
“Vahedi flops the nut straight, Negreanu the nut flush draw”
And finally (I hope), from Answers.com
http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=poker+nut&gwp=11&ver=1.0.3.109&method=2
I agree with that definition.
I didn’t mean to across contrary with my last post.
I do agree there is no such thing as a nut straight when there are 3 hearts or a pair on the board.