# The Nuts

At any given stage in Texas Hold'em, the best possible five-card hand that can be made on the current board is called the nuts. Knowing the nuts at every stage in a poker hand is a useful skill that helps you assess the strength of your own hand. Here are a few examples:

### Example #1:

Board: 7c 8c Qd
The nuts on this board would be Three of a Kind, Queens which could be made if a player's hole cards were a pair of Queens.

### Example #2:

Board: 7c 8c Qd Tc
Adding a Tc on the turn to the previous example's flop changes the nuts significantly. With this new board the nuts are now a Jack-High Straight Flush which a player can make if they were holding hole cards of Jc 9c:
The next best hand, or second-nuts, would be a Ten-high Straight Flush which can be made with the 9c 6c:
One interesting thing to note about this example is that if a player is holding the 9c 6c, from their perspective they are holding the nuts since they know that when they have the 9c no other player can make the Jack-high Straight Flush.
Aside from these two straight flush hands, the next strongest hands would be flushes starting with the Ace-high flush. After the flushes, players can have straights as well. Any J9 hole card combination other than the Jc 9c makes a player a Queen-high straight. Players can make Ten-high straights as well with any 96 hole card combination other than 9c 6c. Following all these other hands, is the previous stage's nut hand, a Three of a Kind, Queens, which is the highest Three of a Kind hand that can be made on this board.

### Example #3:

Board: 7c 8c Qd Tc 8s
Adding the 8s on the river to example 2's board adds to the complexity of the hand. The nuts would still be the Jack-high Straight Flush, and the second-nuts would still be the Ten-high Straight Flush. However, the ranking of hands after these two hands changes because of the fact that the community cards now contain a paired of rank (i.e. the two 8's).
The second 8 on the river makes it possible for a player to have Four of a Kind, Eights if they held pocket 8's, which would be a good enough hand to make the third-nuts. The fourth-nuts would be a Full House, Queens Full of Eights, if a player held pocket Queens. There are many other full house possibilities as well, and then these hands would be followed by various flushes, and then various straights.