personally i have a huge problem with this, especially with
online poker. I play micro stake poker because my
bankroll isnt big at all, but when you play micro stakes people call so loosely that you are going to get bad beat much more times than usual.
example: you play $2/$4 nl and you bet $10 preflop with a good hand someone with Q7 would be likely to fold.
but if your playing $0.02/$0.04 and you bet $0.12 preflop someone with the same hand Q7 off is much more likely to call you and catch some crazy crap..
and yeah other people already said it but simply put
a bad beat is when the player that is well behind wins the hand at the end only after catching a card or cards that had a low percantage of winning. and also it does matter when the money goes in because if you bet after you been bad beat you cant be mad, and only if the person thats behind doesnt have a good draw or reasonable odds vs the money. Also if you bet $2 into a pot of $30 and the person calls you with a gut shot and catches it you cant really say that is a bad beat (depending on what happend before of course) because u bet too little. now if the person with the gutshot calls a $10 bet into a pot of $30 then it would be a bad beat.
okay.. sorry about posting three posts but poker is all about math, including bad beats.
for example lets say your at a 8 player table $1/$2 nl ring game. you bet $8 and one player calls $8 (total pot is $21 (heads up)) you have pocket jacks the other player called you with Ten Five
FLOP - 9 7 3
you bet $2 player calls *Pot is now $25
TURN - 8 (9 8 7 3)
you bet $4 player calls *Pot is now total of $33
RIVER 6 ( 9 8 7 6 3 )
yes this runner runner is a badbeat and honestly i would agree with you. BUT if you bet a dumb amount like that, you cant be too mad. now if you bet even $7 (instead of $2) on the flop you would have been betting $7 into a pot of $21 (the other player would be calling $7 to win a total of $28 or 1/4 meaning unless he had a %25 percent to win the hand he is making a bad call - badbeat)
even calling 2 dollars to win $23 still doesnt make sense on a runner runner mathematically but its such a low ammount people will still call.
just saying - it doesnt matter if its the river or the turn and also "Lower than 5%"? its all about the ratio - (odds of winning hand) vs (pot vs ammount to call)