big bad beats dont happen when im playing well

Easy17 · #1 02-26-2007, 11:29 AM

well, lately ive been playing poorly, prolly due to working 60hrs a week during tax season and other stresses.

I play tourneys and SnG's and have noticed that i get knocked out by a 'bad beat'. (all my chips are in with 75%-95% to win, and i lose the hand)

I used to think, oh well, i got it all in with the best chance to win, im playing good poker. I do not think this is true anymore. I do not think I can look at one individual hand like that - all chips in? yes 90% to win? yes and conclude this is good poker, at least in a tournament perspective.

When I am playing well, one thing I do is control my bet sizing. I cant be really specific with this, but I have won SnG's and large tourneys where i took bad beats all the way through, but i did not lose all my chips.

Another thing, i think when i play bad i am setting myself up for the bad beats - for example, im stressed at work, im playing in a 10/180 and i just dont care if i win or lose. So im super-agressive, and at some point someone calls my all in AK with A7, and hits his 7. the point is, sometimes people will put you all in or call your all ins with what they KNOW to be the worst hand, just to take you out - if your table image is of a certain kind.

When im playing well, people dont take shots at me, quite the opposite, they shy away from me as i think they see me as tight and tricky.

I think you have to look at the whole picture when thinking about getting bad beat after bad beat.

Andruin · #2 02-26-2007, 12:40 PM

This is too easy. I have won tourneys and SNG's with bad beats as well but the main difference is that I started the tourney with good cards and had the chips to deal with bad beats.

If you start with poor cards and play patiently and wait for the right moment you are out of a tourney with 1 bad beat period.

In cash games however I would state that I hardly get bad beaten out of my stack because of the pot control but I have been in such bad luck at tourneys lately that I cannot let your point of view stand uncritizised.

I am talking about getting all in with a set of Kings vs AK and getting A and A on turn and River or AQ vs AA and the flop comes QQA with a turn Q. I might actually drop AA because I have gotten out of 4 of my my last 5 tourneys with AA and the other with KK. Don't tell me there are no bad beats [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Easy17 · #3 02-26-2007, 04:26 PM

when i am playing well the cards dont matter.

i can get crap cards for the first two hours and still have a decent stack, from playing selective draws well, resteals, effective bluffs, etc.

When i play crappy, i am not bet sizing, not folding good hands when i know im beat.

My point is, you cannot look at one hand in a vacuum even if you were a 99.5% favorite. You have to look at the whole tourney to see what led up to that event.

I am not saying that when you are playing well you never ever lose, but - there is more than one way to make chips in a tourney other than getting it all in with AA.

TDA1 · #4 02-26-2007, 05:35 PM

Bad beats happen even when your playing well. someone can hit a 1 outer and there is nothing you can do about it. Even though you may not have made a mistake with how you played the hand...the deck can still betray you.

mvdgaag · #5 02-26-2007, 07:09 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Bad beats happen even when your playing well. someone can hit a 1 outer and there is nothing you can do about it. Even though you may not have made a mistake with how you played the hand...the deck can still betray you.

[/ QUOTE ]

Bad beats happen only when you're playing well by definition of the term bad beat.

Siegmund · #6 02-26-2007, 08:46 PM

My first inclination was to paraphrase "big bad beats don't happen when I am playing well" as "big bad beats cause me to play badly afterward," if they are associated so strongly with times of not playing well...

Bad Lobster · #7 02-26-2007, 10:29 PM

Who's afraid of the big bad beat?

paddymcg21 · #8 02-26-2007, 11:15 PM

Have to disagree. Different people have different startegies of playing tournaments. People like Gus Hansen try and see a lot of flops and outplay their opponents to win small pot after small pot (good poker) others will sit back and only play premium hands in the early stages and get paid off when they do whilst saving chips with poor and marginal hands (also good poker). You cant tell me that if the tight conservative player folds all day and wakes up with AA and manages to get all his chips into the pot with 1 opponent that this is not "playing well". This style is just as effective as any other in my opinion. You're talking about how you cant look at just one hand, consider this. . . You've been playing tight, you are on the bb with AA and action is folded to the sb. The sb moves all in and you call. sb shows AQ, flop comes Q Q 7 turn 4 river 6. You're out. By your philosophy you've played badly in this tournament??

tmtmdeluca · #9 02-27-2007, 12:58 PM

bad beats happen the most online because it is rigged and who ever dont think so is a fool how else could you explain losing 3 out of every 4 hands your at least a 65% fav on its just not possible over a ton a hands or that you lose 80% of your 50-50 races and thats just the half, its just cruel what these online poker sites are doing to some people, i hope they all feel like the scumbags they are but i doubt it

Easy17 · #10 02-27-2007, 01:26 PM

You've been playing tight, you are on the bb with AA and action is folded to the sb. The sb moves all in and you call. sb shows AQ, flop comes Q Q 7 turn 4 river 6. You're out. By your philosophy you've played badly in this tournament??

yes you have probably played poorly

question 1 - have you been playing too tight? waiting all day for AA to get your chips in means you are at best 85% to win, 15% to go home. 15% may not sound like much, but its actually a pretty big chance. - consider the opportunity cost of all those folds waiting for your 85% chance to double up.

You may have passed on raising it up with 10 8 suited in position over the top of a limper who calls. Flop comes K 2 4. you make a good solid c bet of 2/3 pot, he folds, you pick up 6 BB's or so with very little risk, and you are certainly not going home even if he flopped a set of kings.

another time, you call a small preflop raise with Q9 off. the flop comes A 9 9, preflop bettor gets it all in you call and stack him. in your scenario, you would fold the Q 9 off every time and wait for that monster hand .

Im not saying play Q9 off every time, but there is a big problem when you play too tight

If you dont fold fold fold and wait for AA, you get chances to pick up chips early, so your stack is big enough to asorb that bad beat. This is why i say BIG bad beats (all-in preflop bad beat) dont happen nearly as much when im playing well as when im playing poorly.