Bad Beats

 

Bad Beats

 

Something every poker player has experienced and each one has the stories to tell. With each time the Bad Beat story is told, the pot amount is larger and the beat seems more horrific. There is nothing worse than the gut wrenching feeling of having your pocket rockets cracked by 9-2 of spades. "I played 9-2 because I had a feeling." How many times have you heard that? Or better yet, how many times have you said that?

 

Some players are able to take bad beats on the chin and move on to the next hand. Other players, a bad beat can stick to them for the remainer of the game, a couple of days, or even years. Bad beats have been known to cause people to give up on poker and pick up other hobbies like basket weaving or making jam...... When you experience a bad beat, there is one important rule you must remember and accept..... Thats the game of poker.

 

Let's say you have been beefing up your game. You watch countless of hours of videos, you read three poker books a week, you listen to podcast constantly, you check your favorite poker blog, Got 'Em Poker, for tips, you have put in tons of hours online playing $1/$3 tables. You're trip to Las Vegas has finally come and now you are going to dominate the tables. You sign up for a tournament at one of the casinos and go to your table. Once you sit down, you do your normal ritual of sizing up the players and identifying who your weak players are. Cards are dealt and you get KK diamonds. You 3 bet and all fold expect that one guy you pinned as the weakest player because he was asking someone to explain what beats what. You are going to rip him to shreds! Flop comes out Kc-6s-4h rainbow. Your opponent checks and you put a quarter of the pot in. He thinks about it and calls. No sweat off your brow. Turn comes our 3h. Guy checks and you go another quarter of the pot. Your opponent calls. This is the part where your brain starts to turn on you and pull your thoughts in every direction possible. You begin to start thinking of every possible hand he has and if they can beat you. "I've got him beat. Nothing in his hand can beat me!" River comes out and it's the 7 of clubs. Your gut is telling you that you have the best hand and then your head agrees. Your opponent checks and you push the remaining chips of your stack in. With no thought about it, your opponent calls. Your mind is going crazy! You flip your set over and your opponent flips 2-5 off suit and wins with a straight.

 

Your mind has exploded and melted. You get chills and sweats at the same time. You want to jump over the table and rip his head off but there is a part of you that is not altered with rage and tells you jail wouldn't be fun. You pick up your things, shake hands and then ask the guy, "Why did you play that?" He says, "Oh well thats my hand!" ........... Maybe jail isn't that bad?...... You walk away from the table and head for the parking lot.

 

 

This scenario happens more often than you think and the face of the matter remains that it is what it is. You can have all the knowledge in the world on poker but you cannot control how another human being plays. That is one of the good and bad things about poker. You can play any two cards that are thrown to you. From there it all depends on what falls and how you play.

 

If you fall victim of a bad beat, try to follow some of our tips:

 

• Calm yourself
• Once the hand is over with, forget the hand
• Take a short walk away from the table
• Don't cry in public
• Embrace it and move on

All of the greats and all of the fish have experienced bad beats. It's kind of a right of passage in a way. You truly haven't experienced the excitement of poker until you've had a bad beat!

 

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