Handling Beats

Beats are part of poker. There’s no way around it. No matter how well you play, you will take plenty of beats. You can’t prevent them. But how you react to them matters. It’s easy to react in a negative way that will cost you money in future hands. In this column, I’ll discuss two different kinds of beats that you can take, and offer tips for handling them in a positive way.

The “Ahead in a Big Pot” Beat

You open for $25 in a loose $2-$5 game with the K K. Four players call, and everyone has about $500 remaining. The flop comes K 10 2. Everyone checks to you, and you bet $100. The loose small blind calls, and then the aggressive young player in the big blind moves all in for $400 more. You call, and the small blind calls. There’s a pause as the dealer makes the pot right. Then, he deals the J on the turn. The big blind slams his hand faceup on the table: A Q. The river is the 4, and the big blind screams, “Ship it!” and high-fives his friend. How should you handle this beat?

Know the percentages: Obviously, getting it all in with top set on the flop is the best that you could play the hand. After that, the percentages take over. Even assuming that the big blind had no chance to win whatsoever, top set is only a 67-33 favorite on the flop. Getting 2-to-1 advantages will make you rich over the long run, but on any given hand, you have a good chance to get beat. It’s easy to view losing a hand like this one as an injustice. The pot was enormous, you played the hand perfectly, and you had by far the best chance to win. But it’s no injustice. You’re supposed to lose 33 percent of the time.

Bring a lot of buy-ins: Not only are you supposed to lose this pot 33 percent of the time, you also are occasionally supposed to have brutal sessions in which you lose three or four big pots like this one. In fact, every once in a while, you are supposed to have a string of two or three brutal sessions in a row. Such a run could leave you down 10 to 15 buy-ins with your confidence in the gutter. If you play enough poker, it will happen to you, and you therefore have a responsibility to prepare for it.

In my experience, the best way to prepare for a terrible run is to have plenty of buy-ins in reserve. Don’t bring three buy-ins with you to the cardroom, bring six or eight. Don’t play on a five buy-in bankroll. Try to have 30 or 50 buy-ins, instead. Let’s say that you have $5,000 to play poker with. You will feel absolutely terrible if you are playing $5-$10 and lose a $3,000 pot with top set. If you are playing $1-$2 and lose a $600 pot, it won’t sting nearly as badly, especially if you have four or five more buy-ins with you. In other words, I think playing on a short bankroll not only increases your risk of going broke, but also makes you go on tilt harder and causes you to play less than your best.

The “Cold-Decked by a Drunk” Beat

There is a loud, drunk person at your $1-$2 table. Every third hand or so, he moves all in before the flop. Usually, he wins the blinds and a $2 limp or two. When this happens, he taunts everyone at the table for being afraid of him. Every once in a while, he gets called. When that has happened, he has shown hands like the J 5 and 4 2. He’s usually up against a big hand, but so far he’s been lucky to win about half of these pots. Whenever he wins, he cackles gleefully. Whenever he loses, he rebuys for $100 from a thick wad of bills.

The last time around, the drunk guy lost with the Q 4 when his flush draw missed. He’s sitting on $100, and he moves all in. Everyone folds to you in the big blind, and you have the Q Q. You call. He starts laughing, and says to you, “You’re going to love this one,” and tables the A A. No queen hits the board, and you lose.

Know dumb luck when you see it: In my experience, many players are absolutely terrified of the drunk guy who moves in blindly every few hands. I think there are two components to this. First, most live-action players are uncomfortable with getting it in preflop with hands like A-10 or 8-8, even if it’s against a guy they know is more or less playing blindly. Second, I think many players specifically fear the above scenario. It’s Murphy’s Law. The one time they get it in against this guy is the one time he will show up with a hand. They feel like they got “owned” by his drunk act, and that all along he was just trying to trick players into giving him action on his good hands.

It’s not a cosmic conspiracy, though, it’s just dumb luck. He really is moving in blindly every few hands, and he just happened to have aces this time (as he will, on average, about once or twice in a night). Don’t make it any more than that in your head. There’s a lot more luck in poker than most of us are willing to admit to ourselves, and as a result, losing to a drunk guy holding pocket aces is just one of those things that happens.

Indeed, the drunk guy doesn’t need to be moving in blindly for the same thinking to apply. Anyone who generally plays badly can and will get lucky and win pots. There’s no shame in losing a few of these.

Mix it up with him: The best way to deal with a guy who moves in blindly is to mix it up with him. Don’t just wait for big pocket pairs. Get it in there with decent pocket pairs, ace high, and even hands like Q-J suited. (Do be careful about players behind you who might have aces or kings.) The more you play with the guy, the less mystery he’ll command. You won’t see just the aces; you’ll see the offsuit junk, too. And the more you play, the more money you’ll make, on average, and the better the chance you’ll finish the day a big winner. Of course, playing lots of big preflop pots puts you at risk of taking a few “Ahead in a Big Pot” beats, but that’s why you bring plenty of buy-ins with you.

Final Thought

In both of these examples, the winning player acts like a bit of a jerk. Unfortunately, you’ll lose plenty of pots to jerks. Don’t let it get to you. Everyone gets lucky, and everyone gets unlucky. Don’t let anyone convince you to take an unlucky outcome personally. Make an effort to handle beats in a positive way. If you play consistently well, eventually you’ll have the last laugh.

Ed’s latest book, Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em, is available for purchase at smallstakesnolimitholdem.com. He is a featured coach at cardrunners.com, and you can also check out his online poker advice column, notedpokerauthority.com.