How To Deal With Bad Beats

I recently read ana rticle by Daniel Negreanu explaining how to deal with bad beats. Basically, the article breaks it down to do's and dont's.

Some of the don'ts include:
Don't tell bad beat stories. As Danile Begreanu puts it, "Look, they really don't care. Bad beats happen to everyone...have you ever looked forward to someone telling you a hard luck story?"

An obvious one is don't go on tilt. Players start chasing hands with few outs or try a garbage hand to quickly win their chips back.
This will make matters worse. You should focus on your game and play like you've been playing before the bad beat. Other players will also tell if you're on tilt and take advantage.

A good trick to play is answering the question on how your cards have been. Answer by saying that it's running great even though your hands are crap.

Some thign to DO after a bad beat is:

Take a long break. You need to clear your mind before playing poker again so you can focus a little better.

Move down to a smaller limit table. This would regain your confidence since hey are weaker players in the smaller limits.

Thinking positive should help as well.

The most important aspect to remember is to "always focus on making correct decisions at the poker table and not on the outcome."

What about a bad beat in a tourney? I was in a live tourney when a bad beat crippled me jus before the final table. I had no where near enough chips to take a break as i was fightin for life

when playing at home in a MTT or sit n go, if i lose to a bad beat and still in the tourny, i like to throw things around. get the anger out, and take a short walk, grab a drink. throwing stuff around just seems to help.

lol i might try that, maybe keep some stuff around thats cheap and makes a lot of noise when you throw it

I think time and experience helps you deal with bad beats. When I first started playing, I used to get LIVID when I got a bad beat. Now, I pretty much take the attitude of c'est le poker. Sh*t happens. I may post a bad beat story here (just did acutally) but it was more to let people know that the cards can be cold for awhile than a true complaint.

Had one today, playing a two table sitin go $11 buy in. Early in the game, I had one one other pot with a straight by slow playing it due to I had the nuts. Check raised him and took him for around half his chips. I had around 2800 started with 2000.

100 blinds

I'm late position sb, JJ two people call the sb and I raise 5X the blind to 500 hoping to steal their blinds. One folds the other calls me. Cool isolated the oppenent. Flop comes 10,10, 6.

I thinking either I still have top pair unless they flop 10's. I call the pot which was around $800, they call. I'm like what?

So I check it out, turns out she was slow playing me she hit the 10's but what got me was she called me with a 10,2 suited hearts. Knocked me back to 1500. Played tight from there on out but couldn't catch any cards. It just ate me up for a while that someone would call a blind with a 10-2 let alone 5X the BB.

After that I saw her call almost every flop, hit high card or trips and bust out a couple other people. I was scared to call her because of her luck. It's like she had a guardian angle telling her what to play and giving her cards.

So I buddy listed her on my account, hopefully she is playing some ring games in the future. Playing that loose eventually the odds will get her.

Good info T!!! Where do you get all of these articles?

go to the garage and pound nails into boards lol.

the only time i hate takin bad beats is when im at the final table of a once a month tourney. cos u dont have time to make ure chips back and u have to wait a month to play, esp like me where theres only 1 big one a month where i live. but when i take a bad beat at my weekly home cash games it doesnt bother me cos i have plenty of time to win my money back ( and i do ) : P . so i guess it depends on the situation to wether u get worked up over bad beats. cos basically poker is a game of odds and wether ure 95% fav to win they still have a 5% chance and someone has to get the 5% sometimes otherwise poker would be boring.

Recently I took a bad beat on a final table, left in 4th in chips, 3 got paid.

Only had enough left for one round of blinds.

I shook off the beat and managed to win the tourney.

After i take a bad beat i really try to not play the next hand, for some reason my anger takes over on that hand and i start to bluff or overplay it greatly, costing me tons of money

I've found that the more i play, read and study, bad beats don't seem to bother me anymore. I guess I put a lot into Variance. I mean if you are taking bad beats it means you had your money in with the best of it. In poker we can't ask for much more than that. Playing in my live game on Wed. And I had a player domintated 3 times in 2 games for all his chips and he managed to hit 2 rivers and 1 turn to go on to win both events.

That's just the way it goes and goes and goes and goes........

Bad beats are just a way of knowing that we are at the right table with the right players! That money will always be returned....in multiples.