In poker, bad beat is a subjective term for a hand in which a player with what appear to be strong cards nevertheless loses. It most often occurs where one player bets the clearly stronger hand and their opponent makes a mathematically poor call that wins with any subequent dealing to complete the hand.
In pure mathematical terms a one-outer can be considered a pure bad beat, however there is no consensus however among poker players as to what else exactly constitutes a bad beat and often players will disagree about whether a particular hand was a bad beat. A few examples are: quads over full house, quads over quads, straight flush over quads, small full house vs. bigger full house or better.
Types of bad beats[edit]
Any hand that looked like a favorite to win can end up losing as more cards are dealt (with the nuts being the exception), but bad beats usually involve one of two not mutually exclusive scenarios:
- The player who wins on a bad beat is rewarded for mathematically unsound play. Calling a bet despite having neither the best hand nor the right pot odds or implied odds to call, then winning anyway, is characteristic of this type of bad beat. It can also involve the inferior hand catching running cards when it requires two cards in a row to come from behind to win the pot. For example, catching cards on both the turn and the river in Texas hold 'em that complete a straight or flush.
- A very strong hand loses to an even stronger one, better known as 'cooler'. This type of beat occurs with some frequency in movies. In the films The Cincinnati Kid and Casino Royale, The Kid and Le Chiffre each lose with a full house to a straight flush. In this situation, it is possible that both players have played their cards well, and avoiding the bad beat could not have been achieved without committing a mistake.
Reacting to bad beats[edit]
Bad Beat Progressive Jackpot Get in on the action at the #1 poker room in Pennsylvania! Thought you had a strong poker hand that was going to win? Turn that loss into a win with a Bad Beat Jackpot! 40% of the Bad Beat Jackpot will be awarded to the Bad Beat hand (losing hand). 20% of the Bad Beat Jackpot will be awarded to the winner of the hand. 40% of the Bad Beat Jackpot will be awarded equally among the balance of the seated players on the game who received cards at the beginning of the hand or did not receive a big blind button as an.
A bad beat can be a profound psychological blow, and can easily lead to a player going on tilt. Professional player Phil Hellmuth, among others, is notorious for his pronounced reactions to bad beats. However, suffering a bad beat means that the losing player was 'getting the money in good' and in most instances would win by playing the same hand the same way. Thus, the more stoic poker players accept bad beats as an unpleasant but necessary drawback to a tactic that works the vast majority of the time.
Bad beats online[edit]
In online poker rooms, bad beats often lead to accusations that the random number generator is 'rigged', even though such beats also occur in offline games. Many online poker rooms post statistical data to demonstrate the randomness of the hands generated.[1] In online poker games players have an opportunity to play in 'bad beat' tables where the player who has the best losing hand receives an accumulated prize pool. An additional amount of rake is taken from each hand to fund the jackpot. The largest online jackpot to date was €1.25 million, hit in July 2011 with €443,000 going to the loser of the hand.[2]
Players are statistically more likely to experience bad beats online, since playing using a computer allows for more hands played per hour. Also, online players may play multiple cash game tables and/or tournaments at the same time, also increasing the frequency of hands dealt.Also, tells are rendered moot, so players are incapable of reading clues such as body language in aid of deriving the strength of an opponent's hand.Finally, online poker games (especially freeroll tournaments) are far more accessible to the average player who, being average, is less likely to be knowledgeable regarding the techniques of the game, in turn making it more likely they will bet from the gut or intuition rather than experience.
Bad beat jackpot[edit]
A bad beat jackpot is a prize that is paid when a sufficiently strong hand is shown down and loses to an even stronger hand held by another player.[3] Not all poker games offer bad beat jackpots, and those that do have specific requirements for how strong a losing hand must be to qualify for the jackpot. For example, the losing hand may be required to be four-of-a-kind or better. There may be additional requirements as well. For example, in Texas hold 'em there is usually a requirement that both hole cards play in both the losing and winning hands, or that where a full house is the minimum (usually aces full of jacks or higher), both hole cards must be used to make the three-of-a-kind in the full house.
Bad beat jackpots are usually progressive, often with a small rake being taken out of each pot to fund the jackpot (in addition to the regular rake). When a jackpot is won, it is usually split among all players sitting at the table at the time of the bad beat with the losing hand getting the largest share, followed by the winning hand, and all the other players dividing the remainder. Generally, only the best losing hand is eligible to win the largest share, even if another hand would also qualify.
Specific rules, collections, payout percentages, and amounts vary greatly from one casino or cardroom to the next, and are sometimes changed.
See also[edit]
Notes[edit]
- ^PokerStars: Random Number Generator Audits
- ^Boss Media's Bad Beat Jackpot is Finally Hit
- ^'Commerce Casino: Jackpots'. Archived from the original on 2006-08-20. Retrieved 2006-08-20.
Books[edit]
- Bad Beats and Lucky Draws by Phil Hellmuth ISBN0-06-074083-3
- Poker: Bets, Bluffs, And Bad Beats by A. Alvarez ISBN0-8118-4627-X
The Bad Beat Jackpot Finder
We are the only tracker of live Bad Beat Jackpots for online poker sites. The featured jackpots are shown below along with their requirements and reviews of winning. Each Bad Beat Jackpot is different for each site so we recommend you read the basics for each site so you don’t miss out. We’ve seen people lose a 6 figure jackpot over 5 cents! Please hit refresh to see the current poker jackpots amount.
UK poker pro, Jake Cody, who joined PKR.com online poker room as part of its professional team last year, has left the site after his sponsorship deal expired and was not renewed by the site. “PKR’s one year association with Jake Cody has now come to its conclusion,” said the Media Manager for PKR, Dan […]
Poker Stars Wins Case Against Spanish OperatorPoker Stars, the world’s largest online poker room, won the case brought against it by Codere, the Spanish multinational gaming company and proved to a Barcelona court that it has operated legally in Spain since 2001. The court ruled that Poker Stars was correct in claiming that it has always operated legally in Spain since […]
BetOnline Alternative Poker RoomOnline poker room, BetOnline, has temporarily shutdown. Fortunately, it should be re-opening again very soon, hopefully within 3 days at the latest/April 20th. Apparently BetOnline is upgrading their poker site which should provide for a better overall experience for their players.
Our Visitors Have Hit
So far that we know of two players that have visited our site have hit these bad beat jackpots. We got word that two players hit a jackpot on the same day, one winning $128,000 and another person from here was sitting at the same table and won $18,000. The main winner won $258,000 for his quad fours getting beat by quad sevens. Those are two unlucky lucky guys! This was one of the biggest jackpots that we know of that our players have hit, but there surely have been more, and they do happen on a daily basis!
Not Just Playing Online
Bad beat jackpots have been becoming more and more popular at live based 'brick and mortar' casinos. If you navigate our site you'll find our expanding section of casinos that have bad beat pots. The rules tend to change quite a bit for these jackpots so it's always good to ask the dealers what the requirements are.
A Couple Quick Tips
Right now, I'd have to say if you're going to play online, do so at BetOnline.ag. They have a large player database so the bad beat jackpot is constantly rising and falling. Of course, you want to play when it's peaking. BetOnline is also a poker site accepted from the US. There's really no point in playing in my opinion if the jackpot is low because we pretty much always have one site listed where the jackpot is over $100,000.
Pa Sands Poker Bad Beat Jackpots
PokerStars or Full Tilt Jackpots
Because these two sites have the most players of any sites out there combined (even though they don't accept USA players), there is a real possibility for some mega jackpots to happen. It is something we've talked to Pokerstars and Full Tilt about having but at this time they are not adding any poker jackpot tables. Despite this, we still see demand because the jackpots could get into the 10,000,000 range if done properly, along with daily $1,000,000 jackpots. It is our intention to stay on top of these two sites to bring you the mega jackpots. Anyways, for now good luck on getting unlucky!