POKER MISTAKE IN 'TILT'

the thing is, it is a character in the show saying "she walked away from the nuts", so the character used the wrong word. so it is not really a mistake by the makers of the show.

Nuts
The best possible hand given the board. If the board is Ks-Jd-Ts-4s-2h, then As-Xs is the nuts. You will occasionally hear the term applied to the best possible hand of a certain category, even though it isn't the overall nuts. For the above example, somebody with Ah-Qc in the above hand might say they had the "nut straight".
This is taken from a poker gloassary. As said, you will occasionaly hear something is the nuts, but it's not the overall nuts.

Also remember there are terms such as "nut-flush" and "nut-straight"...there's even a term "nut-fullhouse," even though anytime a fullhouse is possible, so are quads. He could have been thinking of an ace-high flush as being "the nuts" and then saw what she really had was even better. Or he could have abbreviated the term "nut-fullhouse" (not thinking anyone who heard him would think so much of it, oh course) because she did hold that hand.

I've frequently seen professional poker players (Daniel Negreanu, Howard Lederer, etc) call hands that aren't "absolutely" the best possible hand on the table the "nuts". The reason for this is that the odds of hitting a straight flush, four of a kind or even a full house are very low. These "pros" know full well that the actual nuts at any given time is a "perfect" hand - but the term itself is used sometimes quite liberally.

And remember, that commentary *after* a hand has played out will show that one player had an unbeatable hand compared to what his opponent had. In other words, for that hand - against that opponents hand, the other player had "the nuts".

Yeesh.

It's amazing how anal people can be over a *slang* poker term to begin with...

Actually, what you said is not entirely true. There are boards where top-set is the nuts. Example: Ks Jc 8c 2d 3h. In such a case, the nuts is trip Kings (there are no straight, flush, or quads possible with that board).

People, stop wasting time on this thread. The Nuts is not a technical word in the English language; it's a slang poker term. If you don't believe me, look in the dictionary for "nuts;" there will probably be no reference to poker.

It is common to refer to the best hand at the table as the nuts (just ask Doyle Brunson). It is also common to refer to the absolute best possible hand (given a board) as the nuts.

I've been reading this whole thread with some amusement (can't believe how riled up people can get about such small things) but haven't posted anything, but I just want to add a few things really quickly...

Dizzare12, YuniGuniKid was actually saying that PHIL mistakingly used the term, and used that to make the point that if a seasoned vet like Phil can make a mistake like that, then the "Random Tourist" character in a television show certainly could. Several people have made the point that maybe it wasn't that the producers of the show made a mistake with the term but that the character within the show itself used the term wrong, and although you've ignored that possibility many times, it seems to makee sense to me. Random tourists might not necessarily have all the poker terms completely mastered.

I also wanted to add...dude, settle down. You've spent a full month now arguing about the possible misuse of a term in one short scene in one episode of a television show; furthermore, it's a poker slang term and there is no one true source for the definition of such terms, so in a case like this when the term is often used in more than one instance (one that states the best hand on the board and one that states the absolute best possible hand) there isn't always one clear answer. And even if there is, and even if you're right (I think you are), I could never imagine someone getting as worked up about it as you are.

Just remember what an old wise man once said about how arguing on the internet is like performing in the Special Olympics. And if you haven't heard that one before, look it up...