 There
is very little in poker
that can throw you off of
your game in such a
dramatic way as a bad
beat can. Dropping from
the high of being all in
on the flop with top set
against two over cards,
to the low of being
outdrawn to a runner-runner
flush is enough to make
the biggest poker fan
hate the game. Despite
this however, it is far
more important than you
think to deal with the
frustration before
playing your next hand.
Its
not uncommon for a player
to chase after the money
they unjustly lost for
the rest of the session.
Players will try and pull
huge bluffs and call for
any draw whilst adopting
the mentality of ‘If
they can win with rags,
then so can I’. I’m
sure as you read this you
can recall a time when
you have been in exactly
the same position, trying
your hardest to get back
the money that’s
sitting in the lap of the
luckiest player in the
world. But do you get it
back? More often than not
you are losing more money
in this imprudent
pursuit.
It
all seems so obvious now,
just stop the
‘tilting’ and save
yourself some money. But
lets be honest, its never
going to be that easy. Some beats are so bad
that they can cloud your
mind to all rationality
and you fritter away your
remaining chips on that
ten-high flush draw. But
there are things you can
do to help stop such an
obvious leak of chips:
- Take
a break. Just
because you leave the
game now, it doesn’t
mean you’ve lost the
opportunity to win
your money back; in
fact it’s probably
the opposite. Let
yourself cool down and
come back when you are
in a rational frame of
mind. There is always
going to be a game of
poker in the next ten
minutes, the next
week, and even next
year. Save yourself
for when you can play
at the top of your
game.
- Think
in terms of
expectation.
Simply put, think of the money you
expected to win on the particular
hand that you lost
with.
This can be done with
the use of freely
available odds
calculators. For example, if
you are all in holding AA against AK
pre-flop, you are
roughly 90% favorite
to win the hand. So
you can say you won
90% of what was in
that pot - FULL STOP.
The 10% chance of
losing means that you
expect to lose in this
situation
occasionally,
and this time you just
got caught up in that
10% chance. You may end up losing
that particular hand
but in the long run
you will be winning
more.
Bad
beats are an integral
part of poker, so if you
want to become a long
term winner you are going
to have to get used to
them. If there were no
such things as bad beats,
then most of us would
never have a losing
session. But on the
positive side, bad beats are
what keep the bad players
coming back. It tricks
them into thinking they
made the right play, or
that poker is always
about luck. And for that
we should be thankful.
For more information on bad beats, BeatTheFish has a great article for further reading: Poker Bad Beats
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