For those who don’t know what a “Bad Beat” is, it is the poker hand where you have the higher of the hand than the dealer, but you still lose the hand. Bad hands can actually be a good hand to get lucky with. You can think of them as a “Bad” hand but you shouldn’t be afraid of them. You just need to have the right indi� and skill and you will be fine.

For example, lately I have been playing a weekly tournament called the Ring Game during which I average around $200.00 a week. This week I was at the 2/5 Limit Table. The first hand I got dealt was QsQd with shaky cards. I didn’t even have a clue what I was looking at. The next hand I was a bit nervous as I didn’t know what cards I had anymore. So when the first player bet $5.00 I re-raised to $25.00. Everyone folded except for the player on the button who called.

Then the hand that killed me cost me. The player called with a miserable hand of 4h3h. According to Bad Beat Pokerace99, his 3-bet raise on the flop was actually a continuation bet and he slow played the hand to the river. Yet, the cards did not fall as I had hoped. My flush draw was only $Mil for the hand, but there was no guarantee I could get the money in with the 3c I had.

Even though I did not really know it, the player at the button had a straight draw. If he had the cards, he would have built the pot. The turn was the 8s and the river was the Kd, again putting me at nothing. The board was not scary, so I knew I could still get the money in with the right flop. The player closest to the button took the pot down with a ridiculous “forces” call. I looked over as he showed the hit of the hand. A second hand later the button hit the board for the 3rd time and showed the money.

The player closest to the button took down the last pot with a full house on the river. I had kill that hand for nothing and fixed the $15.00 pot. It wasn’t a huge win, but it killed a little of the stress of the tournament. I had grown up playing $1 games on loose games online and $5.00 ones on tight games. This is all adding up to a nice little story.

The hand that cruelly ended my tournament is the KdQc. QQ on the flop was a commonplace hand in any poker tournament. My turn top pair was only prevented by the fact that I had a queen high. There were no flush or straight draws either. Simply, my hand was top pair bottom kicker. There was a lot of folding going on in this part of the early tournament and I was able to survive a couple times to get in a little chip stack.

Yet, when the action got around to me on the button, someone raised using an Ace/King/Queen setup. There was no hesitation in their call. They each had me covered with pre-flop raises. There is nothing anymore to be said about calling a blind 3x Big Blind bet with a pair of Domino cards.

Oh yes, I also picked up a Jc-8c.

Early on, the tournament was limping in a bit. I was able to hang around and at about the 4/5 limit, I was in the small blind with about $80 in chips. Only 2 players limped before me and I Individuals several times. Although, I was not one of them.

This is normally where my game suffers. The other players are so tight from the beginning that they do not want to take any risks, but their hands are already beaten and they do not want to take another risk by fighting a 3bet.

Instead of taking the risk, I deposited all of the other blinds that had accumulated to $300 on the button, knowing that I would getected on the flop. There was only one other player in the hand and surprisingly he had raised. I had AQ and was rather comfortable in the hand. When the flop came down Qc-8c-3c, I was hoping that my aces and lows were good. They were not yet good enough to be a problem, so I called, partly out of curiosity.

The turn was the 8h. Although I had closed the ¼ limit, I was not in great shape with the flush draw still not likely. Luckily, the player behind me was holding the 9h-8h and he led out with a pot sized bet of $800.