Bad Beats in Poker
by Alana Morgan
If you’re an avid poker player, you’ll know what it means to get a bad
beat. You get your money in the pot only to lose the hand when your
opponent catches that lucky river card.
Most players get really upset when this happens to them. You say to
yourself, or the player that just gave you that bad beat, “How can you
call with that hand” or “why were you even playing that?” In actuality,
you should be glad that player made the decision that he did.
Usually the people that are giving bad beats don’t know how to play
poker the right way. They’re typically just bad players. It usually takes
a bad call or a bad play for a bad beat to happen. If it weren’t for
these bad beats, bad players simply wouldn’t play poker.
Think about it, if bad players lost every time they got their money
into the pot, they’d just quit playing and this isn’t what we want, is it?
If there wasn’t someone out there trying to give their money away,
this game would be impossible to beat. The only people playing would be
solid players that never make mistakes, and then the only people making
money off of poker would be the sites themselves.
Not only do the bad beats keep the bad players in the game, it prevents
them from improving their game and becoming better players. The luck
that’s involved with poker can convince a bad player that they might be
good. These bad players can have a winning session because of a few bad
beats and then on nights they don’t win, they can also convince
themselves that it was just bad luck that led them to a losing session.
Good players will suffer more bad beats than they will ever give out.
Good players get their money into the pot when they’re ahead more often
than when they’re behind. This is the reason why good players are good.
Good players will pick their spots and make better decisions to get
their money in as a favorite. When you’re constantly ahead and everybody
is trying to outdraw you, they’re going to get lucky every now and
then.
Poker players need to think more long term than they do short term.
Think of a poker session as a life long project. Whenever you take a bad
beat and lose a big pot, think long term instead of short term. If you
get your money into the pot 1,000 times in that same exact situation,
how much money am I going to win? For example, if you get all your money
in the pot 1,000 times with AA vs. a lower expected hand for $300 a
pot, you’re going to win about 836 times and lose about 160 of them. Out
of these hands you’ll win about $202,800. Don’t get upset over the 160
times you lose that hand and just continue your life long session and
wait for your next opportunity