The Bad Beat and How to Overcome It

What Is a Poker Bad Beat?

A poker bad beat occurs when an overwhelming favorite loses the hand. Examples of extreme bad beats would include pocket Kings beating pocket Aces with a third King on the river or a player hitting an inside straight on the river to beat a made hand. In both of these situations, the drawing hand would have, at maximum, 4 outs (cards to come to give a winning hand) and less than a 10% chance of winning.

Lesser bad beats include getting beaten with a made hand like top pair or two pair by a flush or straight draw on the river. While many players feel like they've encountered a bad beat in this situation, the draw has a fairly high number of outs.

A common situation that shouldn't be considered a bad beat occurs when a pocket pair loses to two overcards in an all-in tournament situation. The two hands are essentially even-money favorites to win preflop. To suffer a true bad beat a player must dominate his opponent's hand, play it properly, and still lose. A bad beat is also referred to as a "suck out" with the underdog "sucking out" on the favorite.

There is very little in poker that can throw you off of your game in such a dramatic way as a bad beat can. Dropping from the high of being all in on the flop with top set against two over cards, to the low of being outdrawn to a runner-runner flush is enough to make the biggest poker fan hate the game. Despite this however, it is far more important than you think to deal with the frustration before playing your next hand. > >

Its not uncommon for a player to chase after the money they unjustly lost for the rest of the session. Players will try and pull huge bluffs and call for any draw whilst adopting the mentality of ‘If they can win with rags, then so can I’. I’m sure as you read this you can recall a time when you have been in exactly the same position, trying your hardest to get back the money that’s sitting in the lap of the luckiest player in the world. But do you get it back? More often than not you are losing more money in this imprudent pursuit. > >

It all seems so obvious now, just stop the ‘tilting’ and save yourself some money. But lets be honest, its never going to be that easy. Some beats are so bad that they can cloud your mind to all rationality and you fritter away your remaining chips on that ten-high flush draw. But there are things you can do to help stop such an obvious leak of chips: > >

• Take a break. Just because you leave the game now, it doesn’t mean you’ve lost the opportunity to win your money back; in fact it’s probably the opposite. Let yourself cool down and come back when you are in a rational frame of mind. There is always going to be a game of poker in the next ten minutes, the next week, and even next year. Save yourself for when you can play at the top of your game.

• Think in terms of expectation. Simply put, think of the money you expected to win on the particular hand that you lost with. This can be done with the use of freely available odds calculators. For example, if you are all in holding AA against AK pre-flop, you are roughly 90% favorite to win the hand. So you can say you won 90% of what was in that pot - FULL STOP. The 10% chance of losing means that you expect to lose in this situation occasionally, and this time you just got caught up in that 10% chance. You may end up losing that particular hand but in the long run you will be winning more.

Bad beats are an integral part of poker, so if you want to become a long term winner you are going to have to get used to them. If there were no such things as bad beats, then most of us would never have a losing session. But on the positive side, bad beats are what keep the bad players coming back. It tricks them into thinking they made the right play, or that poker is always about luck. And for that we should be thankful.

Bad Beat Stories

A natural reaction to suffering a poker bad beat is to want to tell the world about it. Players usually want sympathy and understanding from fellow players and reassurance that the loss wasn't their fault. While this is certainly understandable, it is poor poker etiquette to complain about bad beats at the table. Most of your tablemates simply won't care as they've experienced the same situation countless times themselves. The only thing you accomplish by spouting off is pegging yourself as a target on tilt.

While bad beat stories are often tiring to experienced players, they can always be useful if analyzing the strategy used to prevent future suck outs. Bad beat stories can also be entertaining if told with a sense of humility rather than bitterness. We've all given and gotten our fair share of bad beats and, hopefully, can look at them as humorous aberrations from the poker gods in our long-term poker careers.

A point from a Mike Caro article that has stuck with me goes something like this: if you're encountering a lot of poker bad beats, it's a good sign and means that you're playing well. Huh? If you think backwards, this completely makes sense. You suffer bad beats after you have the best hand when all the money goes into the pot. If you're repeatedly the favorite when most of your money is committed then you're playing proper poker.

Forcing your opponents to need a miracle card to beat you every time is exactly what you want in the long run. You should take every opportunity to commit all your chips against an opponent on a draw. While it may be little consolation after suffering your umpteenth straight bad beat, try to think objectively and realize that you still made the right play. Don't alter your strategy simply based on short-term results.

Modern poker players are certainly faced with an increased level of bad beats due to the massive amounts of inexperienced players and the faster pace of online games. That being said, the game's never been more profitable for those who can psychologically overcome short-term bad luck.