Re: Bad Beats all the time?
Quote:
Originally Posted by youngunpoker
Hello,
This is my first post on this forum and have been looking at some other posts and found that this forum is very helpful.
Now to the reason of this post:
I have been playing Online Poker for almost 2 years, I have never deposited money onto any site and i have had never more than $20. I try to cash in freerolls but I always seem to be beaten by the bad beat. How can it be avoided? I flop top two pair and get beat by a straight, should i not be pushing with top two? I have not been successful Online(or Live for that matter), but I love playing the Game. Any advice on how to avoid being busted by the bad beat?
Any help would be appreciated,
Thanks
younguns87
You can't "avoid" bad beats. They are part of the game. All you can do is make positive expected value plays (i.e., bets that will likely pay off, over time, a greater amount of winnings than the cost of the losing bets).
Without getting into all sorts of specifics, it important, unless you have a good read on your opponents and can confidently put them on a hand that is not likely to improve to beat you, to bet to protect your made hands. If you have 2 pair and your reads tell you that you have the best hand, you need to size your bets to give any opponent bad odds on a bet to suck out. Then you win either way-- either your opponent calls and you have just been given a positive expected value proposition, or your opponent folds and you take down the pot.
While many "bad beats" arise from pure luck (e.g., when you get all your chips in with a straight and your opponent catches two running cards to complete a flush), many others occur because a player was playing his or her cards too slow and gave an opponent free or cheap cards to suck out on. This, in turn, arises from players' inability to use the information given to them by opponents to determine a meaningful range of hands that the opponent might be playing. Put simply, they don't realize that they are not as far ahead as they think, so they don't realize they need to act to protect their hand.
There's much deeper concepts involved than this. But this is the basic outline. You can't avoid "bad beats", but you can make them less likely, less costly, and outweighed by greater winnings when your hands hold up.
Re: Bad Beats all the time?
Quote:
Originally Posted by LawDude
Without getting into all sorts of specifics, it important... to bet to protect your made hands.
Your post was absolutely spot on, but I'd just like to mention I hate describing betting with a made hand as "protecting" it. As if you WANT them to fold.
I've seen a lot of guys at live games overbet a drawy flop with a made hand and then breathe a sigh of relief when their opponent folds. It's not a good mindset. You WANT them to call a bet that lays bad odds. It offers them a move that is negative Expected Value (Folding = 0). You should be begging them to call a large bet with a draw.
You're not "protecting" a hand, hoping against hope that they fold and spare you a scary turn card. You're laying a bear trap and hoping the idiot takes a step in.
Re: Bad Beats all the time?
Quote:
Originally Posted by bigslikk
Quote:
Originally Posted by LawDude
Without getting into all sorts of specifics, it important... to bet to protect your made hands.
Your post was absolutely spot on, but I'd just like to mention I hate describing betting with a made hand as "protecting" it. As if you WANT them to fold.
I've seen a lot of guys at live games overbet a drawy flop with a made hand and then breathe a sigh of relief when their opponent folds. It's not a good mindset. You WANT them to call a bet that lays bad odds. It offers them a move that is negative Expected Value (Folding = 0). You should be begging them to call a large bet with a draw.
You're not "protecting" a hand, hoping against hope that they fold and spare you a scary turn card. You're laying a bear trap and hoping the idiot takes a step in.
I do know what your saying, but it's probably a semantic issue more than substance. The bet "protects" your hand because it forces opponents to take bad odds if they want to try and draw out on it. Some of those opponents will call anyway (and you are right-- that's what we want them to do). Some will fold (and while that's not as good a result as calling, it's not a terrible result either-- we still collect the pot!). What we are "protecting" against is a Villain obtaining a free or cheap card to draw out on us. We make the Villain pay dearly for that card-- so that we collect, on average, most of those payments because of the odds against the Villain sucking out, as well as collecting all of the additional pots where the Villain decides the price is too high and correctly folds his hand.
