What is a bad beat?

[ND1991]

I think that a bad beat occurs when:

1) You are playing a premium hand (A suited, PP, AK)
2) You have the best hand.
3) You are not slow playing.
4) You push your chips into middle (or make a large enough bet that someone else pushes and you call the re-raise).
5) You are "well ahead" when your all-in bet is made. For me this is at least 67% favorite. If you are in as 55% favorite to 45% favorite, were you unlucky? Sure. Was it a bad beat? Not really.
6) After all the above criteria are met, your opponent manages to find the few cards left in the deck to take down the pot.
7) You were not short stacked (by a good amount) and betting into the table.
8) AND the beat either cripples you or breaks you.

Any thing less than the above in my opinion is unlucky, but not a bad beat.

Why so many criteria? Well because I choose to believe there is still skill in this game. Rationale for the criteria:

1) If you play garbage cards and hit, you were lucky to begin with. So if you play 10 7 offsuite against AA and the board goes 10 10 7 then A A. Oh well. Granted probablility says this is really bad, but why were you playing a 10 7?
2) Kind of obvious, you have to be ahead to have a bad beat.
3) Use same example as 1) above. If you are slow playing and limp in with AA, you are encouraging others to play marginal hands or the BB to play his 10 7 offsuit.
4) Someone made this point in another post. If you HAD the best hand, are out drawn THEN get all your chips in the middle that is not a bad beat. See 1) above again, if AA pushes post flop, sorry! unlucky? yes. bad beat? no.
5) I figure a 2:1 favorite is pretty substantial. If you are 51 to 49 then in my book, it is not bad beat, just unlucky.
6) Another obvious one, if the opponent did not hit something unreal, you would not be discussing it as a bad beat.
7) If you get to a short stack, people are going to call you. They are getting the right odds a lot of the time. Being short stacked and getting AA sucks, but pocket pairs are going to call you, and probably suited connectors. Once again unlucky, but in a situation where it will happen more.
8) This is my final criteria. Not only did it have to be against the odds, but it had to hurt the chip stack, your chance to cash in a tourney, or your bankroll. Otherwise, it is just one of the many hands you play in poker.

Also, if all eight criteria are met, you can be sure, it was a bad beat!

[ND1991]

Example 1:

6 people left at table. Blinds at 50/100.
SB: 1120 behind the line
BB: 1955 behind the line
P3: 2190 behind the line
P4: 1560 behind the line
ME: 970 behind the line
Button: 1055 behind the line

P3 folds.
P4 calls 100.
ME raises to 400 with JJ
Button folds.
SB folds.
BB calls.
P4 calls.

Flop: 229

SB bets 600.
P4 folds.
ME calls my last 570.

SB flips up 9J.

At this point all the chips are in and I am an 86% favorite to win.

Turn: 8
River: 9

Bad Beat.

[ND1991]

Example 2:

4 people left at table. Blinds 100/200.

SB: 3675 behind the line
BB (ME): 680 behind the line
P3: 2295 behind the line
Button: 2050 behind the line

P3 folds.
Button folds.
SB raises to 800.
BB (ME) re-raises all-in to 880 and SB calls.

SB has Q7 and I have 5A.

I am only 60% favorite pre-flop. I was short stacked.

A9J108

Sure that sucks especially after the flop, but...

NOT Bad Beat.

[ND1991]

Example 3:

5 people left at table. Blinds at 25/50.

SB: 1455 behind the line.
BB: 1435 behind the line.
ME: 1215 behind the line.
P4: 3130 behind the line.
Button: 1690 behind the line.

ME raises to 100 with KQ
P4, Button, and SB all fold.
BB calls.

Flop: K104

BB checks. I bet 100. BB rasies to 300. I push all-in. BB calls with 7K

At this point all the money is in and I am an 85% chance to win.

Turn: 8 River 7

Bad Beat.

[hojediade]

I think that a bad beat occurs when:

I have to disagree with some of your assertions cause bad beats isn't about thinking of as it has a definition.
You only need to fill 2 conditions to be victim of a bad beat.
1- You put all your chips in with the best hand when showing the hole cards.
2- The dog draw cards and beat your hand.

How could it be not a bad beat when you flopped a straight with your T7os and go all-in on flop, facing a player that holds AA, and then the turn gives him a pair on the board and an Ace on the river to give him a FullHouse.
How do you call that if it's not a bad beat?
Bad beats ain't about pre-flop odds, but about odds when you show your hand compare to your opponent hand.

Here is wikipedia definition:
Bad beat - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The important statement is this sentence i guess, why we all fight for nothing probably:
There is no consensus among poker players as to what exactly constitutes a bad beat and often players will disagree about whether a particular hand was a bad beat.

[ND1991]

I do not disagree with you. I was just trying to give an example of a more strict way to define "bad beat". After playing hundreds of thousands of hands online, I have decided I can handle the unlucky streaks better if I do not view everyone as a bad beat.

This hand tonight.

Heads up. Blinds at 20/40. Guy has raised just about every hand to 80 (when he is small blind and when I limp). I tighten up to better starting hands and then bet the turn hard after his continuation bet (which he made every hand but 2).

Him (SB): 430 behind the line
Me (BB): 2540 behind the line

He raises to 80 and I push with A10. He calls with 89

Pre-flop I am 63% to 37% (almost my 2 to 1)
Flop 733 and I am now 70% to 30%
Turn Q and I am now 68% to 32%
River A

Him with 880 now
Me with 2120

Bad beat?

[NoWuckingFurries]

How could it be not a bad beat when you flopped a straight with your T7os and go all-in on flop, facing a player that holds AA, and then the turn gives him a pair on the board and an Ace on the river to give him a FullHouse.
How do you call that if it's not a bad beat?

The point is that a lot of people talk about "bad beats" when the reality is that if they had played the hand better they would have not been in that situation in the first place, and they need to understand that their poor play can cause a lot of these "suckouts"...

[Arjonius]

It's kind of curious that people relate bad beats to being all in, or at least to big pots. Losing with AA vs KK when your opponent catches his 2 outer on the river is the pretty much the same mathematically as losing with 44 vs 22.