Bad Beat!

Despite the title, this is not so much a bad beat post... well, there will be one part I will talk about that but I will give you a fair warning. See, recently, my nonpoker playing friends even use that term when something doesn't go our way... which I find very amusing. Today, my friends and I got together at Ipanema Grill for lunch, which is one of those meat feeding brazilian joints. I was getting pretty full but then I saw the guy walking around with the stick of sirloin steak... so I ran up to grab a plate and flipped the sign to green so that they guy would come over (green = more meat, red = no more). And just as I did that, the guy gave the last slab away and walked away. BAD BEAT! Well, even funnier was that my friend who was up by like the soup station or something saw the guy walk away and he comes back to the table and goes "dude, bad beat!" So true.

The other night, this girl wanted to get Arby's... sent us a text to see if we wanted to join but we had both eaten. Her response? BAD BEAT! (I did end up joining her since she conceded by coming to the Arby's closer to my house)

The usage of bad beat is spreading and I love it.

Ok, here's where poker related bad beat post comes...

Generally speaking, bad beats are unavoidable and I am ok with it. Sure, I'll whine about it but it's part of the game. If your AA < QQ all in pre, it sucks but really, do you expect the guy to fold QQ? It's a cooler from his point of view if the statistics hold up so it happens. What about if you hold AK and the money goes in on a K high flop and you lose to the 2 outer on the river? Sure, that sucks too but what if it was him that shoved all in on top? As in, let's say MP raises, you reraised from the SB with AK. Flop comes K-x-x. You cbet and he shoves. Sure, you call, and he catches the Q for the rivered set. That sucks too but you could at least make a case of he was trying to make a play (a horrible one at that).

The ones that truly annoy me or upset me are what I like to call the WTF Beats. They're so bad, it's not even a bad beat. Like this one:

2-4NL FR
Relevant stacks:
Me - $402
Villain - $1600+

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [Ad Ah]
2 folds
Villain calls $4
MP calls $4
2 folds
RecessRampage raises to $20 <--- from the SB
BB folds
Villain calls $16
MP folds

*** FLOP *** [8h 2h Jd]
RecessRampage bets $33
Villain raises to $66
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
RecessRampage has requested TIME

Ok, so this is an interesting spot. I raise from LP, he calls so he can easily have a middle pocket pair. I don't know much about him so he can also have like a suited connector. I think there are more hands than just a flopped set that he can try this minraise with so I decide that I'll pump this pot even more.

RecessRampage raises to $246
Villain calls $180

This is where I'm a little baffled. I raised to $246, leaving me $136 behind... in other words, I'm committed to this pot regardless of what falls on the turn. So, if so, why is he not shoving? Is he chasing something? Or can he just not let go of some medium pocket pair? Maybe like 99 or something?

*** TURN *** [8h 2h Jd] [4c]
RecessRampage bets $136, and is all in
Villain calls $136
RecessRampage shows [Ad Ah]
Villain shows [Qh Ts]

That's about as good a card as I can hope for if I'm ahead and since I'm not going anywhere, I just shove. I mean what else am I gonna do? Shockingly, this guy calls... and at first, I'm not even sure what he's asking for... well, that is until the river comes...

*** RIVER *** [8h 2h Jd 4c] [9h]
RecessRampage shows a pair of Aces
Villain shows a straight, Queen high
Villain wins the pot ($809) with a straight, Queen high

Um, nice 4 outer sir. You were a 10% FAVORITE to win so sure, why not call off the $136 on the turn. And THAT my friends, is a WTF beat... I mean really... what was he doing in the hand after my reraise on the flop??? What the fuck!?