I've seen a lot of bad beat stories , mostly relating to a style of play engaged in by people who are lovingly referred to as "Donkey's". The stories almost always involve different hands, but the jist of the story is usually the same, I bet a huge amount of money preflop or after the flop, some idiot calls with a mediocre hand and draws out on me, then I lose a ton of money.

This is particularly common in online games where the entry fee is relatively low, you'll have players that will chase low percentage two or three out hands all the way to the river in the hopes of getting a huge payoff. The person who takes the bad beat almost always comments about how irritating it is that the person who beat them got such a windfall for being such a bad poker player.

I too had written a bad beat story such as this , only to realize that the Donkey's who were beating me were indeed playing bad poker, but then again, so was I, and that's why I took such a huge losses on such hands.

Stop and consider that statement for a moment. What is the reasoning behind a big preflop bet or a big bet after the flop? Assuming your not bluffing, the idea is that your opponents will realize you have a strong hand and fold rather than chasing a draw. That is the entire purpose of the bet. If you have top pair and a good kicker and there is a flush draw on the board it is considered "good" poker to bet a significant amount of chips to force your opponent off his flush draw.

Now if your playing a good, skilled opponent then yes, most of them will fold realizing that the odds are not in their favor. However, if your playing a donkey, then no matter how much you bet he's not going to fold. He'll chase that pot all the way to the river. There is no amount of money you can bet to drive him off the hand, and as such your no longer playing good poker, your playing his game instead of your own.

So, when playing online for smaller stakes I've found your best bet is to identify the donkey's as early as possible - fortunately they are usually very easy to spot, and when your in a situation like the one above don't push as hard as you normally would. You know he/she is not going to fold - so you must instead accept the fact that a race is inevitable and bid accordingly. You still want to bid enough to force the non-donkeys out if possible and get yourself a good sized pot if the race turns in your favor (as it generally will) but trying to force them off a pot is impossible until that river card arrives.

Once you realize this and adjust your game to deal with such opponents, you'll notice that the number of "bad beats" you take will be far less, and when you do lose a race like that your overall loss will not be crippling. Good poker, after all, is adjusting your game to your opponents style of play. If he plays like a maniac, then take advantage of it. It might take 3 or 4 such hands to bust him out instead of just one, but in the long run you'll avoid getting busted out yourself by some miracle river card that turns his mediocre, low percentage hand into a big winner.

Granted, this is not the "conventional" approach to playing such hands, but when your playing unconventional players who do not understand or respect the odds you have to adjust your game accordingly. You know that this donkey is not going to survive the tournament for long, they never do - but there is nothing to be gained by allowing their reckless play to jeopardize your tournament life as well.