Re: What is a bad beat, really?
It's getting beat by a play that you legitimately had no reason to anticipate.
If you hold KK and go all in pre-flop, and get beat by a QQ w Q on the river, that's not a bad beat. Your opponent's play was not optimal but it was certainly foreseeable. The hand with the better chance got beat--that's just randomness and short-term divergence from the long-term probabilities, not a bad beat.
On the other hand, if you hold KK and the flop is x-x-x rainbow, and then your opponent completes a backdoor flush draw, that's a bad beat.
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