Poker - What is a Bad Beat?

In most cases where a person claims Bad Beat while playing poker, it is more than likely it is due to poor play than to bad luck.
A bad beat is, by definition, where a player puts their money in good and gets called down by a player with an inferior hand for a loss.

A bad beat is not where you call into a raised pot with J6 and the flop comes JK6 and you lose to a set of kings. When evaluating weather you just experienced a bad beat, ask yourself if you should have been in the hand to start with.

In turn, If you are holding KK and you limp into the pot only to lose to someone flopping nuts with J6, then this also is not a bad beat, because you let this happen.

Look at your hand, if the loss can be contributed to poor play on your part, it is not a bad beat.

Additionally, rarely can someone claim a bad beat by losing a hand all-in preflop. Leaving the hand to chance and battling blind is often a very poor means of handling your cards. I know this is inevitable because unless you are on an unbelievable rush and move on for the win, you will at some point in every poker tournament be all-in, but in many cases, short of being the short stack, this can be avoided.

All in all, instead of meditating on a bad beat and proclaiming it to the world. Look at your hand, evaluate how you played it and not the person who beat it. If you can confidently say you played this hand the best possible way it could be played in the situation, then maybe it was a bad beat.


(Hint: we've all had them, so we rarely feel sorry for yours. Try to keep your game positive and you may just see positive results)