Bad beat stories: you see them in forums, read them in chat bars, and hear them at every live table you play at. They can get old, because everybody experiences them. But there are some bad beats that are just too entertaining to get old.

Unsurprisingly, these involve players like Phil Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu, some of the more entertaining personalities on the poker scene today. Hellmuth falling out of chairs, Negreanu’s famous reading skills totally stymied…it’s the recipe for great TV poker, and even better bad beat stories. Players love to share bad beat stories, because it helps them feel vindicated. Yes, you played your odds, bet the stronger hand, and ultimately lost. We’re so sorry…but at the same time, we can be very entertained! After all, trolling through YouTube poker clips you’ll find out that the clips with the most views are (more times than not) bad beats! Bad beats are as exciting as they are improbable.

Below are my top five bad beat TV poker clips, each offering the type of thorough entertainment only possible with poker pros going broke:

Barry Greenstein, Happily Providing Bad Beats
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEq5amVmEmY

Miraculous Bad Beat with Chris “Jesus” Ferguson

King-Eight…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOZTkDUrq5Y

American Quads vs. Canadian Straights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igldjodEUGg

Jennifer Harman Has A Full House