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Bad Beats in Poker Are a Good Thing
Bad Beats in Poker
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. |
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 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.
Posted: February 22, 2007
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