inside straight

American  

noun

1. Poker.  a set of four cards, as the five, seven, eight, and nine, requiring one card of a denomination next above or below the second or third ranking cards of the set to make a straight.

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idioms

1. draw to an inside straight,  to build up hopes for something that has little or no chance of happening.

Example Sentences

Before the conviction on Thursday in Manhattan, the former president had drawn what some of his closest advisers regarded as a defense lawyer’s equivalent of an inside straight: something close to perfection.

From New York Times

It’s long odds — it’s like going for an inside straight.

From Seattle Times

He leads a portfolio of groups, including a brassy, hard-swinging big band, the elegant hard-bop quintet Inside Straight and the quartet New Jawn, which is heard on the freewheeling “Prime,” McBride’s 18th album as a leader, out later this month.

From New York Times

“The president’s aides sent texts to one another with digital high fives,” Politico reports, “and likened their apparent luck to drawing an inside straight.”

From Slate

Lieberman pulled off the political inside straight only once, in 2006.

From Washington Post