If you like to play poker regularly, there is no doubt that you will encounter a number of bad beats on your way to winning money form the game. There are the common small beats where you were hoping for your hand to hold up, such as having top two pair against your opponent’s flush draw, to the much rarer one-outers that leave you in a complete state of shock. If you play the game, then you will definitely be taking a few bad beats from time to time, and there is nothing that you can do to stop it.
The most damaging aspect of a bad beat is not necessarily losing the money, but the affect that it will have on your game. Getting all of your money in with the best hand can never be wrong, but having the pot stolen from you by a freezing cold deck will keep your frustration levels pretty high. This frustration can often lead players to go on ‘tilt’, where they alter there game to try and win their money back.
Players will take the mentality that if their opponents can win with bad cards and get lucky, and then so can they. They will then find themselves entering far more pots than usual with weak starting hands hoping to get lucky and take back some money that is sitting in their lucky opponent’s lap. As you can guess, the majority of the time this simply does not work, and more chips will be leaked away in the process.
This makes it very important that we try and overcome the affects that a bad beat can have before playing the next hand. By continuing to play after a bad beat when you know you are frustrated, you will be leaving the gates open to lose more money through poor play. If you know that you are playing in a bad frame of mind, it is a good idea to take a short break and come back to the table when you are feeling less irritated. This will help you to continue with playing you’re ‘A’ game, which will make it easier to win your money back if the cards start to fall your way.
Even the best players in the world take bad beats from time to time and get frustrated, it is only natural. Always try and remember that bad beats are good for the game, as it allows poor players to think that they have played well, so that they continue to play the game and lose more money to you in future. Furthermore, if you are taking bad beats it means that you are getting your chips in the middle with the best hand, so keep on doing this and you will be a winner at the end of the day.
