As I read Peter Costa's column in the October 17 issue, for a moment I thought that he and Phil Hellmuth may be on to something to (again) change our poker world forever. The subject was bad beats in online poker. He eluded first jokingly to solutions (which all sounded great to me!) and then he teased us while saying it would be unfair to tease the readers and finally he left us with a riddle, "The key to the solution - can only be found - if you believe a solution is needed."
Bad beats are certainly a part of poker, always have been, always will be. That is why so many bad players play. They often are referred to as dead money because if you wait around long enough, they will, more often than not, give you the money back plus interest. Bad players can play badly and win enough to give them the false security that they can be winning players. That is what is so great about this game. If there were never any bad beats, the bad players would always lose, the good players would always win, the bad players would eventually give up and the game would die out.
Pre the poker renaissance (2002), there were fewer bad players distributing the bad beats because there were fewer players period. Poker was dying. From 2002 forward the growth in poker brought more and more inexperienced players to the felt, which resulted in more and more bad beats being bestowed on the good players. I call it the killer bee theory. If one or two killer bees are trying to attack you, you can spray them, swat them, squish them with a rolled up newspaper, mace them, run from them, whatever it takes to save yourself from a sting. However if 1000 killer bees are after you, they are going to get you. They will sting you over and over and in some cases, kill you. It's all in the numbers.
The smart pro players, the seasoned players with winning records have had to adjust their play with the changing times and the tremendous increase in the number of killer bees. They have learned how to duck, dodge, and develop their own repellent to survive the killers. They also have learned to sting back. The sheer force of numbers and inexperience in today's world of poker is the cause of what seems to be an abnormal number of bad beats being flung about in brick and mortar poker emporiums and you can multiple that by three for the online equation.
You know about your own bad beats, over and over it seems, your aces or kings are cracked on the river or sometime it takes runner, runner to mow you down. Your big slick is cremated by queen-king, your tens are slaughtered by a pair of deuces, and on and on it goes. You remember those horrendous beats because they happen to you but think about this. How many times have you come out of your seat when you sucked out on the river? Those hands had a happy ending for you so you don't burn those in your memory; only the negative outcome seems to stay with you. You too are putting out some stingers. Let's face it; if you're a doctor, you're going to lose some patients. If you're a dentist, you're going to lose some teeth, if you're a lawyer, you're going to lose some cases and if you're a poker player you're going to lose some hands (that you should have won.) Stop moaning about it, stop saying, "Unbelievable!" It is believable; it happens hundreds of times every day.
Denny Axel has the right attitude. He has been running bad for months, receiving more than his share of bad beats. He smiles and says, "Always look for the silver lining. There is something good to be said about running bad ... if you run bad long enough everybody knows it and nobody comes up and asks you if they can borrow money!"
