Bad Poker Beats
You look down at your starting hand and find the Ace of hearts and Ace of diamonds. You raise and get some action. The flop brings the 8 of clubs, Jack of hearts and 3 of diamonds. It's checked to you and you bet. The turn brings the Ten of clubs and again you bet and get callers. The river brings the Ace of clubs. This time the player in front of you bets. You call and he flips over the 4 and 6 of clubs for the flush. You have just suffered a bad beat.
A bad beat in poker is when you have a hand that is a favorite to win beaten by another hand. Most of the time the winning hand caught a miracle draw on the river. This is more common in low limit games because many players have the "any-two-cards-can-win" mentality. Many players will play any Ace and a few players will play any suited cards regardless of the rank. Some players are calling stations that will enter the pot with marginal or terrible hands and then call all the way to the river in hopes of making their draw. Occasionally they do make their hands and you suffer a bad beat. This is a fact that you must accept when playing in low limit games.
Bad beats are a normal part of poker that a good player learns to accept. As sure as the sun rises in the morning, you are going to occasionally get drawn out on the river, not so affectionately referred to as "drowning in the river." Some players complain about getting drawn out in the game but limit Texas Hold'em is a drawing game. If it weren't you would be playing two-card showdown. You will lose an occasional pot to a bad beat from these players but their bad play will lose to your solid play the majority of the time. In the long run, you will make money from players who constantly chase the inside straights or baby flushes.
Before you complain about a bad beat, take a look at your hand that was beaten. Did you belong in the hand to begin with? Suppose you played a hand like J-9 off suit from under the gun and made a straight on the flop. It gets down to the river and you lose to a baby flush. You complain that it was a bad beat. The truth is that you had no business playing that hand from under the gun to begin with.
There are also instances when your big hand will get beaten by a bigger hand. I call this a legitimate beat which, while rare, will happen occasionally. I once entered a hand with pocket Tens. The flop was three Aces giving me a full house. One player and I went all the way to the river. At the showdown she turned over a suited Ace and Queen. I have to admit I was not happy about it but things like that happen. I turned to the player and said, "Nice hand."
Some players get shaken up and go on tilt when they suffer a bad beat. You can't let it affect your play. If you get upset after suffering a bad beat, get up and walk away from the table for a hand. Cool down and then get back to your game. Part of winning poker is the ability to handle the psychological factors of the game.
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Tags: ace of diamonds, ace of hearts, online poker
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Numerous times I have heard players complaining about the cards they mucked after they see the flop. They will make a comment about what they would have had if they stayed in. Here is an example:
The flop will be K-8-7. After the hand the player next to me will say "I threw away King-8, I would have had two pairs." They then usually qualify the statement by saying, "Not that I would have played that hand."
Some players don't like to hear other players making statements like that. I am quite happy to let them tell me all about what hands they would have made if they knew what the flop would bring. By telling me about the hands that they threw away, I now have a better idea of the types of hands they will play. In this instance I know the player next to me is not going to play a single King with a weak kicker. This is good information to know.
Any time you make a comment at the table, you are revealing something to others about how you play your game. It is in your best interest to just make your best decision and then keep your mouth shut if you don't like the outcome.
There will be times when you will make a wrong decision while playing poker. Every player at one time or another has mucked a winning hand. It happens if you misread a player or the strength of his hand. There is nothing you can do to change the outcome. All you can do is continue with the game.
These are examples of decisions we make while playing Texas Hold'em, but there are other instances I see in my daily life as well.
Many of my friends and co-workers regularly trade stocks. It's not uncommon to hear someone lamenting that they sold a particular stock only to see it jump five points the next day. These same people complain that they should have sold earlier when they see a stock drop below the price they paid when it was originally purchased.
Have you ever cleaned out that garage or basement only to find that an item you look for the following week was thrown out? You lament that you should have saved that item for the future. The fact is it probably would have gone unused for the next ten years if you had saved it. You are not alone.
It's human nature to look at the outcome and lament on what would have happened if we made a different decision. You have no control over what will or will not happen. You DO have control over decisions. You have to make your decision based on all the available facts that you have at your disposal and be confident that you are making the right choice. Sometimes this will not always bring about the desired outcome but you have to learn to accept the fact that you made the correct choice and then move on. They always say hindsight is 20-20.
We are only human. Sometimes we make a wrong decision. When this happens we need only ask ourselves if it can be corrected. If it can, we correct it. If it can't, we learn from it, we accept it, and we move on. Exhausting resources by worrying about past events that cannot be changed will serve no practical purpose. It will only make you crazy if you dwell on it, and if you let it bother you, it could affect your future decisions.
As human beings, we will all make right and wrong decisions at the poker table and in life. It is part of the learning and growing process. Anybody who has never made a mistake has never attempted anything new. It's how you handle the outcome of your decisions that really matters.
You are not a fortuneteller but you are an intelligent person. Make all your decisions in life based on the facts, as you know them. Understand that the outcome will not always be as you desired, but that's a fact of life we all must learn accept. Play your game and live your life to the best of your ability and be happy.
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