what constitutes a bad beat?

[Erdnase]

Hi all,

how would you define a bad beat?

Because some of the bad beats really are not so bad!

For example (making it up as I go along):

NLHE tourney, you have 8000 or so, blinds are 500-1000, you pick up KK UTG and raise to 4000, get reraised all-in by the big stack and lose vs. AKs.

Is that a bad beat? Because I don't see any mistakes made here. Both players played it well, one lost, nothing you can do about it.

I guess I am trying to say, that unless there is a horrible decision involved, it cannot really be considered a bad beat, or can it?
/forums/images/icons/confused.gif


Greets, Erd.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

Here's a good example:

You pick up JJ in EP and raise 3x the bb. MP mini-reraises you to about 5x the bb. You call. Flop comes J-3-2 rainbow. You push all-in, he calls and turns over Q9o. Turn is an 8, river is a T.

The issue isn't the bad beat itself. Everybody suffers them. The issue is how you deal with it.

[Fitz]

My personal favorite, and a hand I'll never forget!. Online pot limit game, and I've got about $200 in front of me. I'm dealt two red Queens UTG. I raise it to $10, late position raises to $25 and the button and I call. The flop comes Q75 rainbow. I check LP checks button bets the pot, and I reraise the pot. Both call, and the button and I end up all in. The turn is red 2, and the river a 7 giving me a boat. Unfortunately, it gave the button 4 sevens.... arrrrrgggghhhh.

It has been a year since this hand happened, and it still makes me crazy. There are worse beats, but a 23 to 1 shot to take down a big pot still gives me hives.... lol.

good luck,

[Greg (FossilMan)]

A bad beat is when you are a very big favorite when most of the money goes in, and you then lose to a longshot. At least that's what it means when I use the term. Oh, BTW, when I say big favorite, I mean at least a 4:1 or 5:1 favorite. When you go all-in with AK and lose to JTs, that's unfortunate, but 2:1 is not a bad beat.

Of course, when the amount of money involved is super-high, you can get away with calling something a bad beat when statistically it wasn't that likely. When Olaf Thorson (sp?) lost with AdKd to Amir Vahedi's Qd8d on a flop of two diamonds and no pair for either of them, Olaf was not a huge favorite, just a significant favorite. However, since there was something like T1.5million in the pot, I wouldn't argue with anybody calling it a bad beat.

Later, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)