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

To be sure, between the two possible outcomes in 2020 — a Biden victory, or a repeat of the electoral college “inside straight” Trump pulled in 2016 — the former seems more likely, fortunately.

From Washington Post

Can Trump pull an inside straight again?

From Seattle Times

“In 2016, his chances of winning the election were those of drawing an inside straight in poker. … The question this year is whether he can draw an inside straight two hands in a row,” said Whit Ayres a veteran Republican pollster.

From Seattle Times

If his 2016 campaign "drew to an inside straight," to use the poker metaphor I've heard many times, and won an election in statistically improbable fashion, that unlikely event is no less likely the second time around.

From Salon

If Trump's act "worked," in the sense that he successfully devoured an inbred and decrepit political party and won a flukish, "inside straight" election, that happened because some of us desperately wanted it to and the rest of us desperately feared it might.

From Salon