[Rhone]

Doing it quickly will take practice. But you might start by working backwards mentally from the best possible hand, asking yourself whether it could possibly be out there. So, start with a royal flush: are there three cards on the board which, when combined with two others, would make TJQKA of the same suit? If not, then think about quads. Are there two cards of the same rank on the board? If yes, then the nuts is quads of that rank (unless the board is double paired, in which case the nuts is quads of the higher ranked pair).

since a paired board seldom means quads, a full house is close to the nuts in these situations. Remember, the board has to be paired for there to be a full house.

not a paired board? are there three cards of the same suit on the board? then a flush is possible, with the nuts being the flush with the highest ranked cards. So if a board has the 2[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] J[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] and A[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], then the nuts is the hand that has two diamonds, one of which is the K.

etc...