All In Strategy

Bad beats happen to everyone. Texas Holdem is especially bad, in my opinion, because pre-flop you can have a great hand - the best hand - but after the flop it could be just a pair. AA pre-flop deserves an all-in, but if a 27o calls, and flops 227, you’re out of your entire stack.

The good thing about bad beats is that statistically, solid hands will win over time. If you are consistently seeing bad beats it could be for a couple of reasons. First, do you often bluff? If you are often called out on bluffs, your opponents will be more willing to call your strong bets with lesser hands. While this is normally a good thing, any hand can be outdrawn with the community cards.

Another reason could be your level of play. If you’ve been playing in sub $1.00 tables, or play money tables, you might have noticed a lot of bad beats. That’s because it’s often a very low risk to call a strong bet. The stronger your bet (in relation to your opponents bankroll) the more likely you’ll be able to get him to fold.

You don’t want everyone to fold, but the more people call your hand pre-flop the more chances you have of being outdrawn. If you go all-in with AA or KK, you want only one or two callers. Any more and you will diminish your odds too much to have a significant advantage.

So when you’re playing, remember that bad beats happen to everyone. Don’t let them change the way you play.