I used to think that the concept of the 'bad beat' didn't really apply in blackjack, but I'm pretty sure I just suffered one! So I thought it might be fun to start a thread in which people can post their tales of outrageous misfortune and get some sympathy (or not ) from the community at large. To begin with my own - I just went into the last hand of a sem-final, heads-up table, with a sufficient lead that a minimum bet meant my opponent needed both - A BJ To swing me I grimaced when #1 duly arrived (and I received a S18 against the dealer's T). I cursed when I hit the S18 and turned it into a H16. I cried when I lost. :sad: So please, post your own tales of woe and make me feel better about myself. Edited to add... Because I can't let these things go, I decide to work out the odds: By my calculations, I was a 0.9886 favourite, going into the last hand.
Even sadder Colin, what would have made your story even more sad would be to find out that the dealer had a seven down and had you stood on your s18 instead of hitting it like BS says you would have not been swung! :sad:
Try to beat this one Goldstrike tournament in May. Last hand with max bet of 10,000 BR1 me 71000 bet 500 BR2 40000 bets max 10000 I draw 10 4 hit and bust (so what) dealer has a 10 showing BR2 draws a pair of Queens and splits. First Q is hit by an Ace and she doubles down and draws a 4 Second Queen receives another picture card which she also splits. Draws a 5 and 3 on each and stands. Dealer turns over a 5 and promply busts giving BR2 80000 and me 70500.
Bad Beat vs. Bad Luck If we are going to talk about BAD BEATS, I think we need some definitions here: BAD BEAT: A BAD BEAT occurs when you have at least very good cards and therefore expect to win as a result but the cards of you opponent(s)/dealer are such that you lose. BAD LUCK: BAD LUCK occurs when the cards don't fall for you. Or you get decent (not great) cards and your opponent gets better (or a lot better). The posts I've seen so far on this thread are BAD LUCK. That doesn't make it easier to swallow but bad luck is bad luck. What can you do?
Well those are possible definitions And they make sense in the world of poker, since everyone goes into a hand of poker with an equal chance, and the rounds go on and on until somebody is the winner. But the poker terminology doesn't map onto TBJ exactly ... For one thing, you don't choose which hands to play in BJ, as you do in poker, so there isn't the same feeling of being owed the expected outcome, having waited patiently for a good hand. I was stretching the bad-beat concept a little, by applying it to TBJ. It seems to me that if you have engineered a situation in which you are a strong favourite (and can even put a figure on it, much as happens on televised poker before the turn and river cards appear), then the bad luck associated with the cards not co-operating constitutes a 'bad beat'. Going into the last hand with a 98.86% probability of winning the table, only to be thwarted by the cards, seems to me to be very much the same thing as being a similarly huige favourite with only the river card to come, only for the one card in the deck that could save your opponent to duly show its face.
More discussion needed I see you point. Since the term "BAD BEAT" originated in poker, it looks like we BJT players need to derive a universally acceptable definition for our type of play. No, I'm not going to lead the way. Just food for thought.
Whiney's I posted under the Tournament Blackjack Tour (TBT) about the Whiney's awards I want to give out at the end of the Tour. They are awards for the players with the most BAD BEATS during the year in TBT events. Each 20 you have that gets beat or 21 and or BJ that gets pushed you will receive 1 point towards your end of the year total. The three players with the most pionts truely will deserve the right to whine a little. Hey I gotta give them something to laugh about to keep them from crying...LOL
All good fun That sounds like a good idea Tex, though in the context of what we were just discussing, those things are more bad luck than bad beats. Maybe you could have a separate award, voted for rather than calculated, for the worst example of a 'bad beat'. To my mind, the factors that make up a bad beat are - Just how unlikely was the thing that happened? How drastic were the consequences? Hoiw much previous good work, in terms of skillful play, was wiped out at a stroke?
I have found the worst Bad Beats are the ones I hand myself. Like yesterday when I was the last to bet with a lead at Global second round. I bet 485, via advanced mathematical analysis, vs my opponents betting 500. Luck for some and strong cards for me had me stand. I lost by 2.50$. Thats folks is a defeat. That is a bad beat. :bomb: B
Colin I like your suggestion, A LOT! How about making it where a player has hit at least twice (or more) on a possible bust hand to get to 20 or 21 and then the dealer draws 21 on minimum 4 cards. Players BJ vs. dealers BJ really happens often so I agree it really isn't a "BAD BEAT". Good suggestion, other wise we would be having players with 100's of bad beats at the end of the season. How does this sound for bad beats? What about this situation? When you have a player beat except the only way they can beat you is catch a all in (max. bet or lower) BJ on the last hand to beat you? Let me know what y'all think?
That happened to me yesterday! On hand 8 I was LB2 with 25K bet 1,000. LB3 had 25,500 and bet 1500 after me. LB1 had 10K and went all in. Of course LB1 got the BJ, I lost, and LB3 won. Game, set, and match. Eliminated. Now there's a bad beat.
Not... Sorry online games don't count....LOL But I remember a few BB I saw you get over the passed two years! The first cruise tournament comes to mind!
Well, I'm glad something good has come of my terrible experience. Ooh, that's twisting the knife Tex! I refer you back to my opening post. My opponent needd an all-in BJ and for me to lose my hand. I thought I'd got over it, and then you go and bring it all back to me
That's OK Tex I wanted this thread to be somewhere we can vent our frustrations; a form of therapy. Incidentally, I wouldn't tweak your original concept for the 'Whineys' too much. It's a nice, simple measure of long-term, low-level bad luck. One useful refinement might be to exclude hands where the bet was less than some threshold (maybe 1/10 of BR), so that it only counts when a player is attempting to make a move and, despite initially looking good, it ends badly. My idea for the 'bad beat' award would be something entirely separate - A subjective judgement of what was the worst single incident of overwhelming, undeserved bad luck. Going back to the earlier debate, I think a good, concise definition for the meaning of 'bad beat' that applies equally to poker, TBJ, or anything else would be - "Skillful play, confounded by dumb luck."
That might be a better plan We could single out certain events and have the players vote on the worst "BAD BEAT" kind of like the ESPY's. Watchout Wideworld of sports, the TBT may have our owe verson of "Agony of Defeat"...LOL
need classification I don't know how to classify my story. Please advise! I was playing online, and due to losing a couple of catch-up bets, found myself almost out of it on last hand. I had to win a max + 1/2 max while br1, 2, had to lose. I was dealt Q/J not enough br to split so I DD for less. I smile came as I got an A for 21. Then the dealer turned his 10 into a bust so I lost anyway. tgun
