Overcoming Bad Beats in Texas Hold’em
In order to win at Texas Hold’em or for that matter at any poker game, you need to have the right strategy. The kind that helps you win pots of money. Your strategy could be based on any aspect of the game ranging from specific in-game theory to the psychological aspects of play.
A major setback to any poker players’ game is a bad beat. The kind that drops you from the high of being all in on the flop with top set against two overcards, to the low of being outdrawn to a runner-runner flush. This is where your strategy comes in, where you have a game plan before playing your next hand.
Losing a lot of money in the game can be pretty frustrating. An aggressive player will determinedly chase after it for the rest of the session while attempting to pull off huge bluffs and losing more money in the bargain. Some beats are so bad, they drive you insane and you waste the rest of your chips on that ten-high flush draw.
Do not lose heart; there are ways in which you can avoid such an obvious leak of chips:
Take a break
Cool off. Poker is a mind game, and your mind needs some rest, sometimes. If you return to the game in a rational frame of mind, the probabilities of you playing at the top of your game and winning your money back are higher.
Think in terms of expectation
Think of the money you had expected to win on the hand that you lost with. As for instance, if you hold an AA against an AK pre-flop, there are 90% chances that you could win the hand. You could use an odds calculator to figure this out. You can now say that you won 90% of what was in the pot, the 10% chance of losing being an occasional situation that caught up with you this time. Okay, maybe you lost this particular hand but later on, you will be winning more.
A poker lover will come across bad beats at some point of time in his play. It is what makes the player sharpen his skills at the game and not just depend on luck alone. What is important is that we overcome the bad beats by playing the right strategy.
This was all about the Bad Beats in Texas Hold’em. For more such Poker related strategies continue reading here.