Today’s topic is dedicated to the term Bad Beat. Below, we will go over the specifics of this term, discussing its meaning, instances of use, and examples in various sports and gambling disciplines.
Need more terms? Well, you can find explanations for literally any crucial terms used in betting on our glossary page.
What Is Bad Beat
Everyone has experienced this situation in their life while betting, gambling, playing games, and doing other activities. Basically, Bad Beat describes the situation when sheer misfortune comes at the most unexpected moment. The team you trust has an extremely high chance of winning the current match. And you are almost certain to win. But something happens, and the opposing team makes an unexpected comeback, and your team loses its crazy advantage.
It all ends in a losing bet. But more importantly, such a lost bet feels much more painful because your expectations of winning were extremely high. Bad Beat is only called Bad Beat when there is an unexpected comeback that you will remember for a long time, which can freak you out. And some teams get even more spiced up by having high odds to get in.
Bad Beat Examples
To make the idea clearer, we will give you some simple examples of Bad Beat moments.
Imagine you have placed a simple bet on your beloved football team (favorite team), which has quite low odds and high chances of winning. The game starts, and your favorite team scores easily. It is the 70th minute, and you are confident of victory. Suddenly, the striker gets injured, and the opposing team takes the chance to score the first, second, and third goal and win the game unexceptionally.
Examples of Bad Beats From Classic Sports Events
Such failures happen to many people on a regular basis. But there are famous cases of bad beats that millions of sports fans fell into. Some of them are from the NBA Finals, and some of them happened during the Super Bowl and other famous events. Let us take two examples of when the biggest comebacks happened, and confidence met the worst reality.
- On November 16, 2016, the world witnessed a crazy NBA game between the Raptors and the Rockets. There were only 20 seconds, and the wide spread of points gave Raptors big advantages. However, although the Rockets were down 11 points, the team managed to take the lead in just four throws. All of them went in, shocking the fans of both teams.
- There was another historic moment in 2006 at the Super Bowl match, where the absolute leader, the New England Patriots, made their way to the NFL finals, going 16-0. However, at the Super Bowl, New York Giants fans went crazy after the last catch in the last two minutes, which led to the loss of the New England Patriots.
Bad Beat in Poker
Yes, the bad beat is a nightmare not only for sports betting enthusiasts but also for card game lovers. In poker, a bad beat is when your hand is very good, but the flop has nothing to do with your cards. For example, you may have dealt an excellent card that gives you a high chance of winning. But the player with the lower hand managed to beat you. So, in poker, it is also an unexpected case that happened with a low probability.
How to Minimize the Bad Beat
Since a Bad Beat is just a situation that nobody expects and it happens regularly, you cannot avoid it. Unfortunately, we cannot control our beliefs and randomness. There are numerous examples of 100% guaranteed results that did not happen. However, you can either minimize the number of such events in your life or reduce the losses from such bets. Here are a few techniques to help you stay afloat even in the worst-case scenarios.
- Apply hedging strategies. Whenever you are confident in your bet, there is a risk of a bad beat. To eliminate the risk of losing even a very solid bet, you can use hedging techniques. For example, you want to bet on the winner of the Super Bowl at the beginning of the season. And you are lucky enough to get to the final, where your chosen team is playing. The idea is to place the hedging bet that picks the other team to win. In total, you have two active bets. However, the first one will bring you winnings with much higher odds. As a result, you will get profits in any case scenario.
- Proceed with great prep. Good preparation has never been unnecessary. Every bet requires a bit of preparation. Read the news and make sure that all insights are in your eyes. In other words, you have to be prepared for all unexpected situations. However, if you do not know essential information but everyone knows, you are gonna get in trouble.
F.A.Q.
You have to expect a bad beat from every event. There are many old events that we can consider as bad beats. So it is impossible to say how often the bad beat will happen.
Bad Beat Jackpot is an extremely rare moment that can happen when you have four of a kind (4) on your hands, but you are beaten by your opponent’s four of a kind (6). In this case, the casino considers this result as a miracle and a Bad Beat Jackpot.
Often, a bad-beat event is deemed to have high odds. That is, the odds of a bad beat are much higher than the odds of the chosen outcome.
