How Do Bad Beats in Poker Work?

What is a bad beat in poker, and how do bad beats work?

A lot of beginner poker players have trouble with bad beats. If they read this post carefully, they’ll probably feel a lot better about them.

A bad beat in poker is when a strong hand loses in later betting rounds because a weaker hand has improved.

I’ll occasionally here someone who has pocket aces who loses to pocket kings complain that they had the better hand. That’s not true. You don’t know who has the better hand until the showdown when all the cards are dealt.

Until then, you have a stronger hand, but it’s all theory until all the cards are dealt.

If You’re Getting a Lot of Bad Beats, You’re Making Money

Winning poker players make their money by getting it into the pot when they have the mathematical best of it.

If you’re not getting any bad beats, you’re not getting your money into the pot with the best of it.

The bad beats are just part of it.

Think about it this way.

If you’re at a table with 9 players and have pocket aces, and if all of the players call all the way to the river, you’ll lose 2/3 of the time. Someone’s hand will improve enough to beat you.

And every time, that’s a bad beat.

Of course not.

You make your profit by what you get paid when you do win.

If 9 people each put $100 into the pot, you stand to win $800 1/3 of the time.

The other 2/3 of the time, you’ll lose $100.

This means that you’ll win $800 for every $200 that you lose — for a profit of $600.

And you’re losing most of the time in this scenario.

This is why I get so amused at players who get mad when their opponents fold in the face of their aces. They’d rather have the sure thing small win instead of the more profitable situation.

They’d rather avoid the bad beats on 2/3 of the hand.

Not me.

Bring on the bad beats.

The Bad Beat Jar

Few things make you sound like more of a newbie than constant bad beat stories. I have a friend who runs a bar in Pennsylvania, and they have almost constant poker games there. He told me a story about one of his bartenders.

Said bartender brought in an empty jar with the words “bad beat” on the side of it. Any time a patron of the bar wants to share a bad beat story, the bartender tells them to put a dollar in the jar.

This bartender has the same response to all these bad beat stories, too. No matter what the story is or how much money the guy lost, he always says, “Yeah, man. That’s a BAD beat.”

Everyone’s happy, too. Drunk losing poker players love to tell bad beat stories. And bartenders love to make extra tip money – even if they have to listen to bad beat stories to get the money.

How Does a Bad Beat Jackpot Work?

Many casinos now offer bad beat jackpot games. The way these games work is that you put a little extra rake into the pot on every hand – that extra amount fuels the jackpot. You win the jackpot when you have a premium hand which gets beat by an even more premium hand at the showdown. Usually, the other players at the table also get a percentage of the bad beat jackpot.

All casinos and online casino sites that offer bad beat jackpots specify how good the losing hand must be before qualifying for the bad beat jackpot. This has the effect of minimizing how often the bad beat jackpot gets won.

You might be playing in a casino where the bad beat jackpot pays off anytime someone with 4 of a kind or better gets beat by another hand.

Some casinos have other requirements – for example, they might require that your hand use both hole cards in the final determination.

A bad beat jackpot is an example of a progressive jackpot. Usually, when a gambler thinks of a progressive jackpot, they’re thinking of a slot machine game with a ticker where the size of the big jackpot continues to grow. The lottery is another example of a progressive jackpot.

It just means that the jackpot gets bigger until someone wins it. At that point, the jackpot resets to its starting amount.

The Borgata Bad Beat Jackpot Is a Good Example

At The Borgata, they have detailed requirements for winning the bad beat jackpot. There must be at least $20 in the pot for a bad beat jackpot wo be won. That’s at the lower stakes; in higher stakes games that number is even higher.

You also must be playing at a table with a minimum of 4 players. To win the bad beat jackpot, you must have a 4-of-a-kind that ranks with a 10 or higher. The winning and losing players also must both be using their 2 hole cards for their 4 of a kind.

The Borgata pays for their bad beat jackpot by taking $1 from every pot. This is in addition to the rake and fuels the jackpot.

Also, you’re not allowed to discuss your hands. If you’re colluding for purposes of winning a bad beat jackpot, the jackpot becomes invalid.

The loser of the hand gets 40% of the jackpot, and the winner gets 20% of the jackpot. The other 40% of the jackpot is divided equally among the other players at the table.

How Do Most Players React to Bad Beats?

Even pro players have strong emotions regarding bad beats. Phil Hellmuth is a notorious cry-baby, although he doesn’t really go on tilt. Instead of letting his emotions affect his play, he has a mini-tantrum and gets it out of his system.

I don’t think this makes him look good, but Hellmuth doesn’t care. He’s won more WSOP bracelets than I ever will.

The biggest reactions to bad beats happen online, though. When someone suffers a bad beat – or a couple of bad beats in a row – they often assume that the cardroom is cheating somehow. Most of the time, this isn’t true.

Online cardrooms have little to no incentive to cheat. They make more money offering a fair game.

The reaction is understandable, though. Most people have trouble understanding that if a hand is going to win 80% of the time, they’re bound to lose 20% of the time.

People who bet on the 2016 Presidential election suffered a bad beat, too. They assumed that the pollsters were all wrong because they gave Clinton an 80%+ probability of defeating Trump.

The problem is that 80% is NOT the same thing as 100%.

Savvy gamblers understand this.

Categorizing Bad Beats

You’ll run into 2 types of bad beats in poker. The first is when a player with a weaker hand calls your bet or raise. Sometimes they might even raise back at you. This is mathematically the incorrect play on their part, but once in a while, they’ll accidentally win.

You should feel good about players who do this. That’s where you make your money – from the players making the mistakes.

The other kind of bad beat is when a strong hand loses to an even stronger hand. This is the kind of hand where a bad beat jackpot pays off.

You Know Who Doesn’t Become the Victim of Bad Beats?

The players who are bad at poker are the ones who don’t become victims of bad beats. They’re the ones incurring the bad beats on the other players.

If you’re seeing a lot of bad beats, you should feel good about yourself. It means you’re playing well.

Poker isn’t about short-term results. A bad beat is just a short-term result.

Poker is about making good decisions that profit in the long run. In a single day at the tables, even the best poker players can lose a lot of money.

And even the worst poker players can win a lot of money from the experts.

If that weren’t true, poker would be a dull game indeed.

Conclusion

Bad beats in poker are clues that you’re playing well.

Bad players don’t understand that. Heck, even some average players have trouble with that concept.

I’ll admit. I sometimes get upset when I get a bad beat, too – especially if the other player is trash-talking me.

The best thing you can say to someone you put a bad beat on is simple, though, “Man, that’s a BAD beat.”