The Bad Beat Equation
Friday, May 16th, 2008I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen someone cursing their luck at the poker tables and attempting to prove how unlucky they are. Often the general thing which they try to prove is that they get way more bad beats inflicted upon them than the other way around. Poor sods? Do you have any sympathy with them yet?
Well, lets analyse that a little, and show that you should always in fact suffer more bad beats than you dish out. Seems illogical sometimes at first, but that is the way it should be, rather than having anything to do with being cursed at the tables.
Suffering a bad beat is a direct reflection of getting the chips in with the best hand. By it’s very nature it cant be a bad beat unless you do this.
Inflicted bad beats upon others is a direct reflection of getting the chips in with the worst hand.
Therefore if you are 50:50 in terms of beats suffered and beats inflicted on others, it doesnt mean you have average luck, it just means you are an average player.
If the ratio is 90:10 that doesnt mean your the unluckiest guy on PKR Poker or wherever you are playing, it just means that in 9 out of 10 occassions you are getting your chips in with the best hand. You are not unlucky as such, you are just a good player!
So in summary, the bad beat equation should be unbalanced, and that imbalance that seems like awful luck compared to others is actually a direct reflection that you are doing the right thing. So chin up, and try to just shrug off those beats once and for all.
