Background

I have been on this kick recently for about two to three months, where I have to deal someone a bad beat or else my poker day is not complete. If addicts get their high from their drugs, my high is dealing bad beats to people. The worse the bad beat the better the rush I get.

Example: A player on my left goes all-in and everyone folds to me and when I look down on my 43s, it kinda looked good. I had a medium sized stack at that point so I called about a third to half my stack. He turns over AKo and when I turn my 43s, all my friends laughs, cause they know already what I'm doing. I am a 60/40 underdog preflop, which is not a bad situation for me. The flop comes J-9-2 rainbow and I am deeper in the hole 70/30 and become a 90/10 dog when an A comes on the turn, but when a 5 shows up on the river, I smile and the guy shakes my hand and leaves without saying goodbye to anyone else.

I don't mean backing into a bad beat when you just limp in or check your BB, because that would mean that you got lucky, I mean coming into the flop you know that you are the underdog, might even be dominated. There is that overriding feeling that I get when I look at my hole cards and I feel that those are winners or losers. I've called all-in's with cards that I felt that were winners, even if they were 3-4 or 7-4 which I call Bad Beat Specials (BBS) and sometimes I've looked down on pocket Aces or Kings and had a bad feeling about them and sure enough they get beat. Position plays a lot into the BBS as well.

Here is my method for playing bad beats. If I feel that my hole cards are winners, I raise 3xBB regardless of the blinds in a tournament level or in the ring games in the casino. The reason being, if you are playing BBS, you have to be the only one on the table with that type of hand. If you limp in, there is a chance that the SB or the BB will be holding a similar hand that might have you beat. Raising also gives the players an impression that you have good cards, and if they have good cards as well they wil call your 3xBB raise.

If there are numerous callers to my raise, I know that my BBS in a great position. Think about it, if there are three or four callers of the 3xBB raise, chances are they got good to premium hands, crowding that side of the spectrum thus giving them less outs to work with. The BBS on the other hand has the lower end of the spectrum pretty much to itself with plenty of outs to work with.

Example: In an underground SNG, and the blinds at 300/600 I look at 64o and I raise it 3xBB, I get three callers and I feel good. Flop comes J-7-5 and everyone checks to me where I bet out 600 and the three players quickly called. A 5 comes on the turn and everyone checks, including me. With a 6 coming on the river, I bet 1800 and the next two players goes all-in with their remaining stack and the third player calls. I turn over my 64 giving me two pair and the other players are in disbelief as they turn over AK, QT and KT. I bust out two of the three players in that hand.

With unpaird hole cards, there is a 30% chance that you will make exactly one pair. Not much to work with, but that is the same percentage for ALL unpaired hole cards. So if my opponent doesn't have a wired pair, we would be working with the same percentage. Again, this fact works in the BBS' favor with multiple callers.

When the flop comes and you hit it, the BBS will be disguised in the low cards, confusing your opponents more, especially when you bet out. The chances of multiple players hitting the flop with exactly one pair with their unpaird hole cards are very small, so if you are in position and everyone checks to you, you might want to bet out. If you don't hit the flop and there is a bet in front of you, after you muck your cards, no one else will know that you were playing a BBS.

Hit the flop hard enough like two pairs or trips and go all-in, other players will not believe that they think and call. Then you have them dominated. The most exciting scenario would be that you got two pairs with your BBS and another player has high pair. If you have position on him and he leads out, you can go all-in. Reason being that with his overcards, preflop he was 60/40 ahead but with your two pair and his top pair, you become a 74/26 favorite. If a blank comes on the turn, you extend your lead 82/18, which is drawing pretty slim on the river.

Example: Late, in a multi-table tournament and the blinds at 500/1000, the player two to my right raises it to 3000. I look down at 72o, giving it some thought I called. The flop came J-7-2 and the player checks to me and I went all-in, he calls and is surprised to see my 72o and he turns over AJo, he's in bad shape and as my two pair holds up, I bust him out.

Sure, most of the time when I play BBS and I get my feeling wrong, it would affect my stack but if I don't have to show my cards the BBS would stay hidden. Sometimes I call all-in bets preflop with my BBS and I have to show my BBS, I'm not too nervous because I know I am the underdog, and its the favorite is usually sweating it out. If I'm suited and I flop a flush draw which will happen 10% of the time, not even talking about flopping a flush which happens .84% of the time. The pressure on the favorite is tremendous.

Whether I deal the bad beat or not, the players that I use the BBS on, will play me differently in the future, a little bit more weary about my pre-flop raises and makes me more hard to read. So even if I didn't deal out a bad beat, the after effects on the opponent would be still the same. Showing your BBS is also not a bad thing, because your table image is then a Loose-Aggresive Player (LAG) which gives you the advantage when you are holding a premium hand. It really pays to advertise.

I don't say that the BBS is a profitable play or that it is a correct way to play No Limit Texas Hold'em, I'm just saying its so much fun dealing someone a big hot helping of Bad Beat.