Spend enough time playing poker, and you will get used to losing hands. That is a fact of life for people who ante up for cards, regardless of how good they might be at bluffing out opponents and reading them.
Billy Baxter, a veteran pro who’s won millions, was on a cooler a few summers ago when shruggingly said:
“If you won all the time, something wouldn’t be right.”
However, losing when maths is on your side, and you should win, which defines a bad beat, is something else altogether.
Brutal Bad Beats – Everyday Madness
Bad beats drive everyone crazy, Even the ordinarily mild-mannered players flip out when their nut flush gets trumped due to a seemingly innocuous card that materialises on the river. And in the case of Texas Hold’em master Phil “Poker Brat” Hellmuth, well, in those instances, he unleashes profanity and looks ready to explode.
But who can blame the Brat? It’s one thing to lose a hand. But it’s quite another to get decimated when you should have done the decimating.
Here are some of the most brutal bad beats that have ever unfolded at the table. They are horrible to experience but loads of fun to watch.
Read about these nightmare scenarios – which all debuted via televised poker games – and next time your winner turns loser, remember that it happens to the best of us.
Brutal Bad Beats - Cowboys Crushed
Phil “The Unabomber” Laak was dealt Ace, King of clubs, a starting poker hand you pray to get. Avi Freedman, a serious recreational player who is CEO of a technology firm, sat a couple of seats to Laak’s right and had a pair of 10s pre-flop. Naturally, they were both game to play poker.
After a bit of betting – and a discussion regarding a weird wager on whether the world is round or flat (place my money on the former, please) – a few thousand dollars were in the pot.
The flop came 9, 2, King, which was a dream come true for Laak: top pair for him and rags on the table. The Unabomber must have been thrilled when Freedman shoved with a way worse hand.
Suddenly, there was $14,000 in the pot, and Laak sat pretty as he and Freedman turned up their cards.
They agreed to run it twice when the unthinkable happened - the 10 came on the turn…
But Laak had a second opportunity, which would have resulted in chopping the pot and seemed likely to happen, given poker probability. After all, only the case 10 could help Freedman.
Then, running it a second time, the unthinkable transpired. Freedman caught the fourth 10. The table exploded, and the commentator spoke the truth when he said of Freedman’s fortunate pulls:
“That’s all the luck you get for your entire life.”
Brutal Bad Beats - Shot with Your Own Bullets
Phil Hellmuth got dealt a pair of Aces and bet out. Rep Porter, the only other player remaining in the hand, raised Hellmuth with Ace, 10 off-suit. Hellmuth, with his face in his hands, popped back.
The table talk turned to cross-country skiing, and Hellmuth cracked to Porter, “You can fold your eight high anytime.”
Porter joked back, “Eight high? If I had eight high, I’d have to bluff.”
Then he pushed in all his chips. Was he trying to teach the table how to bluff in poker?
Hellmuth proceeded to put on a bit of a show by shoving in a giant mess of his own chips. Suddenly, there was $9,075 in the pot, and Helmuth looked like a lock -- until two 10s dropped on the flop.
Hellmuth’s Aces did not hold up. But the biggest shock of the ugly proceeding was the Brat’s mellow reaction when it all ended.
“Well played, Rep,” Hellmuth calmly said, expressing uncharacteristic coolness and drawing big laughs at the table.
Brutal Bad Beats - Straight to the Bank
Being the son of the poker legend Doyle Brunson, you learn a few things about poker. This poker history was what brought bearded and bespectacled Todd Brunson to the Hold‘em table.
- Up against white-haired Jim Carroll, Brunson had Ace, Queen to Carroll’s pocket 10s.
- Betting ensued, and Carroll made three of a kind on the Jack, 2, 10 flop.
- It gave Brunson nothing but a gutshot straight draw (a serious longshot) with all of his money in the $10,750 pot.
The turn was a rag and, as the announcer made clear regarding Brunson, “He’s drawing very thin.” But sometimes thin is the win, which is what kept everyone focused on the action.
In this instance, the river card was Brunson’s hand-making King, which gifted him a straight that busted Carroll’s trips.
The loser’s reaction? He brayed at Brunson, “Nahhhh! You suck out, donkey. There’s no way you can beat me with skill. So, you suck out like a donkey!”
Raking in his chips, Brunson laughed all the way to the bank.
Brutal Bad Beats - Late Show
Late in the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event, as fifteen remaining players were being winnowed down to the final table of nine, Texas Hold‘em fans around the globe witnessed what might have been one of the most consequential bad beats imaginable.
It’s an oldie but a goodie, and it still stands as one of the most unlucky losses in the history of world poker tournaments.
Jonathan Duhamel got dealt a pair of Jacks, a hand you are happy to receive. But he would not have been happy to see that Matt Affleck, on the button, had two Aces.
- Pre-flop, there was 8,450,000 in the centre of the table.
- The flop came 10, 9, 7, which was a great flop for Affleck, even though it gave Duhamel a gutshot straight draw.
- Affleck was a 73 per cent favourite to win.
Maybe sensing his own blood in the water, Duhamel checked. Affleck responded by betting 5 million, and of course, Duhamel called. There was 18,450,000 in the centre of the table.
When a Queen dropped on the turn, Duhamel checked. Affleck, surely emboldened by the Queen, shoved with a 79 per cent chance of winning. There was 30,080,000 in the pot, leaving Duhamel with a major decision to make.
He had an open-ended straight draw and two jacks. His stack would be demolished to a measly 8 million chips if he lost. Nevertheless, Duhamel called. Affleck showed his Aces; Duhamel needed an 8, a Jack, or a King.
It would be an unlikely outcome.
- Tensions rose as the dealer prepared to drop the hand’s final card.
- Characterized as the tournament’s biggest river, it came an… 8.
Affleck appeared to be in tears as he was shockingly knocked out in 15th place.
As for Duhamel? He was rolling serious poker chip value, advanced to first place in the rankings and wound up making history by becoming that year’s World Series of Poker champion with a first prize of $8,944,138.
But don’t feel too bad for Matt Affleck. While he may have experienced the most brutal bad beat of his career in 2010, he still took home $500,165 that year (not exactly chump change)
Currently, Matt has a total of $3,933,837 in tournament earnings. That is nothing to cry about.
