So let’s say the flop and turn are dealt, and your 9’s are still good, however the nasty, ugly river card is a Queen, beating your hand. In this situation, you and your pair of 9’s will win 52.21% of the time. Let me explain: Say you hold pocket 9’s, and go all-in pre-flop, and get called by a player holding the Ace and Queen of spades. (A “race” is a poker term for when you get all the money in pre-flop when it’s a basically 50/50 chance you’ll win). Losing in a typical “race” situation is not a bad beat. There is no set, definite definition of what exactly constitutes a bad beat in poker, but it’s generally accepted that a bad beat only occurs when a hand that is an overwhelming favorite loses to an inferior hand that gets the needed cards to pull out a win.

(Go here to see the normal buy in amount you’d need to play $1/2 No-limit Texas Holdem in a casino) Bad Beat Definition a 5 and 6 of the same suit, you’ll lose once. In other words, for basically every 4 times you go all-in with pocket aces vs. So while your pocket aces (often called “pocket rockets”) look pretty and get your heart racing, in reality they’re only a 76.76% favorite to win.

You’re doing this because you’re a new player, and don’t realize that it ain’t over until Joy Behar sings. 5 and 6: you’re happy to see the hand, and the pot is now so large, you’re licking your chops, practically reaching out to stack them already.

What is bad beat in poker