Bad Beat
What exactly is a bad beat?
Technically, any time you are ahead in a hand and your opponent comes from behind to beat you, well technically that is a bad beat. But there is more to a bad beat than that. Let’s say you have KK and your opponent has JJ and the flop comes J84. Now if this is a no limit game and you both got all your money in before the flop, then this is a bit of a bad beat. However, what if the money went in after the flop, sure you still had those Kings but after the flop your opponent has a set of Jacks. Same hand but now when the cards are turned over, it is much less of a bad beat; you got your money in when you were behind. Now when the King hits on the river! that is a bad beat for your opponent because he was ahead and now you come from behind to win the hand.
So the essence of a truly bad beat is how far behind the eventual winner was and how late in the hand the winning card falls. There are so many examples, here is one more: You have AA and your opponent calls your all-in bet with AK. You have him dominated and when the flop comes 10-7-3, you are even further ahead. Then the turn comes with a Jack and you notice the awful straight potential that has just appeared (AKJ10) and sure enough a Queen hits the river. That is a bad beat.
-This is Beginner’s Poker Blog Post #131
