Avoiding Bad Beats Online

**Vinnie Vegas** · 12-10-2005

There are certain red flags to look for when playing online that will keep you from getting a bad beat out of your straight, flush, full house, etc..

The main way to see a bad beat coming is to look at the community cards and figure out what your opponent's best hand could be. For instance, let's say that at the turn, the cards on the table are the nine, eight and four of spades along with the king of hearts. In your hand is the King and deuce of spades. Now, you would think the odds of the other player actually having two spades and one of them being the ace are pretty low... that's where online play differs from live action. In live action, you can pretty much know you're going to win this hand most of the time and bet large to push the other players out (of course, it depends on how many other players are still in). However, when playing online, the hands are geared more towards winning at the last moment on the river, etc., as well as having better hands show up more often. I've run into bad beats like this hundreds of times and they come up more often than not.

The one I run into the most is the "I've got a full house, but yours is better" bad beat. This happens way too often in online poker rooms to be realistic. For instance, you have trip nines and two jacks... they turn around and have trip jacks and two nines and you lose most or all of your stack.

If you've had a chance to play with this player for a while, you might know if they're a bluffer or not but most likely they're an unknown to you as people come and go from your table constantly online. This means that their bet is the only compass you can use to guide you in this instance. Most of the time, online poker players do not bluff when we're talking about large bets and especially on an all in bet. They know from experience that people are way too quick to call with subpremium hands online, so they've given up on bluffing for the most part.

If you make a large bet and somebody reraises you or goes all in and it's possible they have the better full house, fold. The chances you will win that hand are very small and the risk is not worth the reward. I can't tell you how many tournaments I've been knocked out of this way... at least till I learned this lesson. If you have the straight, they may have a higher straight... if you have a non-nut flush, they may have the nut flush. if you have a straight and there's three of one suit in the middle, they may have the flush. If they're going over the top of your raise, you'd be wise to let it go and live to play another day.

Hope this helps somebody! I'll post more later.

Vince Smith
Poker For The Pros.Com

**Trons** · 12-10-2005

Wow, this reads like a Online poker is rigged/play really weak and fold if you don't have the nuts type post...

I've only logged about 18k hands with online poker, I've had 200 Boats and only 18 have lost...Of those 18, half of them the 3 of a kind was on the board, and 5 had 2 pair on the board (IE: it only took one card from each hand to make the boat and each person hit enough of a hand on the flop to stay in the hand)...of the 4 other hands that I lost, 2 were to 4 of a kinds (outside this topic) and the other 2 were just where we both had PP and his were bigger...I think less then 10% chance of losing gives me the odds to keep raising it up when I have a boat...

Looking at the hands I've played and the hands that beat me (in the boat vs boat comment) I can honestly say almost none of them should have been a surprise (not sure if I was surprised at the time or not) but the hands that were played were hands that you could reasonably expect a decent player to play (Lots of painted, PP, suited connectors and such).

As far as frequency of a boat losing, I'm guessing that 10% is a reasonable expectation given that anybody with 2 pair on the turn has about 10% chance to hit the boat on the river and people with trips have better then that. Saying that it happens more frequently online is just...what's the word I'm looking for...Stupid?

BTW, if this was a post to advertise poker for the pros...and this is the kind of advice you give people, then keep giving it. I would love somebody to fold their boat to me when there is a small chance I might hold the single possible hand that beats them and I'm betting agressively. This sounds like the type of people I want sitting all around the table.

**Gryff** · 12-10-2005

Originally Posted by Vinnie Vegas

However, when playing online, the hands are geared more towards winning at the last moment on the river, etc., as well as having better hands show up more often. I've run into bad beats like this hundreds of times and they come up more often than not.

Online poker is t33h rigged?

**Gryff** · 12-10-2005

Originally Posted by Trons

This sounds like the type of people I want sitting all around the table.

Shit, the boards come AK2, I had two pair, but he probably has the trips, better FOLD RIGHT NOW AND NOT RISK IT, THIS IS ONLINE!

**growlers** · 12-10-2005

Originally Posted by Vinnie Vegas

:Hope this helps somebody! I'll post more later.

We should start a minimum # of posts before you can start a thread rule like some other forums do. The good threads get buried by new people advertising their affiliate website with a thinly disquised poker is rigged thread.

**Gryff** · 12-10-2005

Yeah, even something low like 5 replies would be a good idea.

**Marm** · 12-10-2005

No, then you end up with a whole bunch of threads with one word replies as peop;le try to get their post count up, and we have enough of that already.

**Jason75** · 12-10-2005

Originally Posted by Marm

No, then you end up with a whole bunch of threads with one word replies as peop;le try to get their post count up, and we have enough of that already.

Yes.

**growlers** · 12-10-2005

Originally Posted by Jason75

Yes.

lol

**slp** · 12-10-2005

Originally Posted by growlers

lol

haha

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