Learn Texas Holdem

Got a triple-header for the readers here.

Bad Beat #1: I'm at a local NL tourney ($50 buy-in, max payout of $500, charity event), I'm about halfway through the field of about 130 people, and doing rather well. After starting out with $1600 in chips, I was up to around $7500. I was in middle position, dealt 5h 7c and raised to 3x big blind, got one caller, a woman who was playing tight/aggressive for most of the time I was at the table with her. Flop comes 6s 8s 9s, giving me the 9-high straight. Figuring my opponent was four-flushed, I bet out 10x big blind, she takes a while, and calls it. Turn is 7d, so she may have a straight like I did, so I try to represent the flush and push all in, she IMMEDIATELY calls it and shows her 2d 5s, giving me the best hand with the 9-high straight, but she is four-flushed and can draw the 7s to make the straight flush... well, given that this is a bad beat story, she does, and immediately thanks me for the rest of my chips. The worst part of this story is that my opponent was my sister... I didn't hear the end of it till I gave her a taste of her own medicine recently by flopping the same straight flush, hehe.

Note: You had the same nine high straight on turn

Note: You had the same nine high straight on turn

Bad Beat #2: Same style of tourney, 3 months later, around 40 people left, and I've got just enough to make another round and maybe a spare chip after that. Get dealt Ks Kd on the button, smooth-call the big blind with no raises in the round. 4 people to see the flop come Kh Ad Qd, raise from seat 1, 2 and 3 call, I raise all-in with my trips and straight/flush/quads/royal draws. 1 and 2 fold, 2 accidentally floats the cards, showing his Kc 3h, which made no bearing on 3's decision to call. We flip and he's got Qc Qh, lower trips with a straight draw. This point in time, we sit back and watch the turn hit both of us with the 10d. The river turns my trips with flush/quad aspirations into trash, as it comes Qs, giving HIM the quads and sending my sorry butt to the rail.

Bad Beat #3: Home game, $25 buy-in for a mountain of chips (play for fun, really, money is just there) and we play short-handed, 5 of us usually show up. I'm 2nd place and only trailing by 2 big blinds. Get dealt a rotten hand by most standards, but my favorite: 7s 2d. I'm on the big blind, no raises on the board, so I check (a mistake, given the outcome) and the flop gives me a boat, 2s 2c 7d. SB checks, I raise to more than the others can handle, they fold out, and the lead calls on the button. He'd played loose the majority of the game, so I pegged him on 2 pair or maybe trips. Turn shows a huge card for me, 7h, so I bet out half my stack, and he raises me all in. Called and flipped, he had Js Jd. Jacks and deuces to deuces full of sevens. He looks miserable, he knows his chances are slim, especially considering someone said they'd folded a Jack. River comes his one out... Jc. Out in last place in a home game from a one-outer after making a boat on the flop and improving on the turn.