Good Beat Stories

Another post inspired by Alan Schoonmaker's book, Your Worst Poker Enemy. While it is easy to find books about poker strategy, this is the first book I've found that teaches you to recognize and (hopefully) avoid the psychological mistakes that make you lose money playing poker.

Every poker player can tell you a dozen bad beat stories - tales of big pots lost because some idiot got lucky and won. But who exactly are these idiots who win all these pots? You never hear anyone telling "good beat" stories about when they were a complete idiot and still managed to luck-out and win a pot. People don't tell good beat stories because everyone wants to look skilled, but the truth is that we all have done stupid things and won anyway due to dumb luck. For every bad beat there is a good beat.

Be honest with yourself. If you want to be a consistently good poker player, you have to be able to honestly assess your own ability. Pretending that you have never won because of a miracle card on the river is self-deception.

A week back I was playing in an on-line tournament in which I crushed the field, won almost every hand I played right up to the final table - and it was almost entirely due to luck. Believe me, I'm not being modest. I doubled up very early when I was dealt pocket fives in the big blind, called a raise I really should have folded to and hit my set on the flop when my opponent had top pair with an ace kicker. That's a 7.5 to 1 shot. In fact I think I flopped a set at least six times over the tournament - a very lucky streak. I must have been dealt pocket aces at least five times and right after we got down to being "in the money" - the point at which most players switch from playing tight to loose- I was dealt pocket kings two hands in a row, then pocket queens on the next hand, then pocket kings on the hand after that! Pure dumb, stupid luck. Yet I still almost managed to mess it up when a very tight, solid player went all-in and I called with pocket jacks. I should have known he had pocket aces and he should have taken about a third of my stack with his double up, but a jack came on the river. I wonder how many times he has told his buddies about that bad beat?

Think about your good beats and remember the times you were a lucky jackass the next time you suffer a bad beat yourself - it will make it easier to shrug it off. Over time the good luck and bad luck will balance out and if you are more skilled than your opponents you will win in the long run.