Tired of Crazy Bad Beats?

What are "Bad beats" in poker?

The term bad beats is that given to the situation where you lose a hand at poker - Texas Holdem or any other poker game format - when you were convinced that you would be in the best position and you should win.

Take the following example. Say you had pocket Aces and the flop was As Jh 7c. At this point you would probably (and quite rightly) think that your would be in a very strong position with your triple aces. Your play would probably be to raise (unless you had decided to "slow-play" the hand to milk the most out of your opponents). You get called so you think - great, no bad beats here, this time I'm winning some money!

The turn is 2d which is good too, you don't think that there's any way a 2 could improve your opponent's hand, your opponent cannot have a straight or flush draw so surely you're winning.

At this stage the odds are heavily stacked in your favour and you would rightly look to cash in on your good hand - and probably take it all the way if you had to. This should be pay day!

The river shows 7h which is almost perfect for you. If somebody has a 7 then they probably think their triple 7s are winning but you top them with your full house - AAA77. They may have two pairs or even trips but your full house would beat any of those. But they call your raise so you re-raise and to your delight they call again.

You go all-in and get called.

Feeling almost sorry for your opponent and his stupidity you show your Aces and get ready to collect your big pot.

He shows a pair of 7s, he's got 4 sevens!

You thought your Aces were winning all the way, especially when you hit a third one on the flop then picked up a full house on the river, but on this occasion his pair of 7s was the winner while your pocket Aces was the loser.

A very bad beat!