Recovering from a Bad Beat
When playing poker taking bad beats is part of the game. For many it is the reason they play, for those stories you have to tell people afterwards. The “nearly” kind of stories, much like the fisherman’s tales of “the one that got away”. For others bad beats are agony and cause untold pain during the game.
So what exactly is a bad beat? A bad beat is quite simple when you lose a hand that you should have won. You were the strong favorite to win the hand but the other player got “lucky”. This may be that you are playing Hold’em and you get dealt AA and go all in and are up against KK, you are a very strong favorite to win but on this occasion there was a king on the river and you lost the pot. That is a classic bad beat.
These bad beat situations can be difficult to cope with when you are playing. Some players can’t cope at all and their play visibly suffers for it, while others remain calm and it seems to not bother them at all.
When at a poker table you have to remain as emotionless as possible. For many, bad beats destroy this mentality and they begin to play badly.
To recover from a bad beat it is often a good idea to walk away from the table for a minute or two just to clear your head. Is what happened really that bad? You got all your money in as a huge favorite, your job as a poker player is complete, now it’s up to the cards. You will win money if you keep playing well, so sit back down and move onto the next hand with a clear mind. Good luck!
