Posted by Junelli 4:35 PM
The Origin of "The Nuts"
by Marc Weinberg

For a change of pace (instead of me whining about a bad beat or gloating over an improbable victory), I dedicate this column to a little poker etymology, namely discussing the origin of an interesting poker term, "the nuts". You hear it all the time playing poker, but where does "the nuts" derive from, and how did it come to mean the absolute best hand in a poker game?

When you hold the nuts in poker you have an unbeatable hand. If a hold'em board shows Ad-Td-Jc-2c-3s and you hold the Qs-Kh then you my friend have the stone cold mortal nuts. This cool poker term dates way back to the Wild West where cowboys would gather round a table, preferably in a saloon but alternatively around a campfire, and play cards. Back then poker players would not always bet with cash or chips. It was a more rustic time, and men would often bet their horse and wagon on a poker hand. Legend has it that when a cowboy bet his wagon he would unscrew the nuts from his wagon wheels and place them in the pot.

The reason behind this gesture was that in the event that he lost the pot he could not leap up, hop into his wagon and ride away with his wager. The fact that he was willing to put those nuts in the pot as surety for the strength of his hand resonated through the prairie, and came to be synonymous with the best hand. A cowboy would only bet "the nuts" when he was convinced that his hand was the best out there.

Everyone knows that Wild Bill was gunned down while holding Aces and Eights, and that we now call it the dead man's hand. But who at your table knows the true origin of the nuts, other than you of course, pardner.

2 Comment(s):

Posted by  Johnnymac, at 5:40 PM, September 27, 2005  

No offense to Marc Weinberg, but I seriously seriously doubt that story for many reasons not the least of which being that metal nuts and bolts (and ball bearings) were not mass produced until the end of the 18th century (ie when electricity enabled the invention of machine tools). If I remember correctly, wooden wagon wheels in the wild west days were connected to a solid wooden hub with a cotter pin.

I think the idea of nuts being hard to "crack" might be a better explanation for the use of the term? Or maybe it's anatomical?

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Posted by  Junelli, at 9:15 AM, September 28, 2005  

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story!

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