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Survivor's guide to a bad beat
Whether you become successful in turning a profit from poker or play the game
for the fun and excitement to be had, you will do well to learn how to survive
a bad beat.
In monetary terms, assuming you are playing a cash table, the way to survive a
bad beat, is by not committing your entire poker bankroll on a single
hand that is less than the absolute nuts. By absolute, I mean the best
possible hand from the cards played as well as the cards that may come later
in the hand.
To survive a bad beat playing a hand less that the nuts, only commit the amount
you are willing to lose. Poker players also learn it is not a good habit to
take your entire poker bankroll to a table. Bad beats happen too often to risk
your entire bankroll.
Worse than the monetary side is the mental effect of a bad beat; this is really
where these words are aimed.
Players of varying abilities from the best to the worst have the same chance
of experiencing a bad beat. A less skilled player may issue a few more beats
than an experienced player, but both should learn to survive a bad beat.
Being real blunt; Suck it up. Do not cry like a six year old girl who has
dropped her ice cream; and do not resort to insulting the other player, their
skill... or lack of it.
Do, take a moment to reflect on the play; consider, was there something you
could have done to limit your loss, should you have played the hand
differently and were you the perfect player in this occurrence.
If you feel you had made the correct play, then congratulate yourself on
getting your chips into the pot with the best hand, knowing that your skill
level out-played your opponent and luck out-played you. Understand if you
keep making correct plays, you will keep suffering bad beats; however,
overall you will win more than you lose.
Real life example
A player (unnamed, so I will call him TAG) versus a new player to the table
(unnamed, so I will call him LOOSE).
Pre-flop play folds around the table to LOOSE who raises 4xbb. The play
continues, all folding until TAG in the big blind calls.
The flop is low, 3-5-6, two spades one heart.
Acting first TAG moves all-in, LOOSE calls.
TAG shows 2-2, LOOSE shows A-Q one spade.
When a Q came on the turn and the river was a blank, TAG began a vitriolic
condemnation of LOOSE’s play. This continued for many hands, distracting the
table annoying both TAG and LOOSE and did not result in LOOSE saying, “I’m
terribly sorry, …here, let me pass your chips back.”
So it served no purpose.
That time could have been spent by TAG assessing if the play and the subsequent
call was correct; instead TAG wasted the time. It is easy to argue TAG was in
front when the chips went into the pot.
TAG fixated on the bad call; and for sure it was a bad call, however TAG did not
consider if it was appropriate to have lost so many chips in the hand, with the
lowest possible pair. TAG lost chips from that hand, but more importantly,
missed the opportunity to gain knowledge. TAG did not survive the bad beat; TAG
'tilted' and was out of the tournament several hands later, making an
agricultural play against LOOSE's big blind.
Moaning about a bad beat will limit the attention you pay to the current hand
(the important one).
As you are a skilled player, you will get your chips into the pot with the better
hand or better drawing hand more often than you will with the lesser hand. As a
skilled player you will assess if you are in front or have a reasonable chance to
take the lead in a hand compared to the amount of the bet made, required or
expected. As a skilled player you want the lesser hand to be in the pot against
you, otherwise you will not earn.
To survive a bad beat, remember that sometimes you will be overtaken and at other
times your hand will stand up. You too will make a wrong call, get lucky and issue
a beat yourself. That is the way of a game that involves luck. In short, you win
some you lose some.
Focus on the ones which go in your favour, as much as the ones that go
against you. And if you are seriously saying to yourself as you read
this, “I wish one would go my way… they all seem to go against me.”
Then you will do well to examine your play in all these cases or ask
yourself, "do I really lose every hand to a bad beat."
You know you are a better player than most, and because of that your overall skill
will come through …in the end.
To win a big pot someone has to gamble, over the course of a poker day, month, year,
or career the one who gambles the least and assesses correctly the most, will win
more chips, more often.
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