Bad Beat

Also known as: badbeat, suckout

Losing a pot you were a clear favourite to win because the underdog hit a low-probability draw.

A bad beat is when you get the money in ahead and lose to a hand that needed help — your favourite gets outdrawn on the turn or river. The defining feature is that you had the better of it when chips went in; the loss is a variance event, not a mistake, and over a large sample those same favourites win at exactly the expected rate.

This is distinct from a cooler, where you were never ahead. In a bad beat your equity was high — say 80% — and the 20% simply arrived. Getting it in as an 80% favourite is a great result every single time; the river card doesn't change the quality of the decision.

The trap is letting bad beats drive tilt or a strategy change. Players who start "protecting" against suckouts by betting bigger with no plan, or who stop getting it in good because they got drawn out on, are converting normal variance into a real leak. Log it, note your equity was fine, and move on — the math doesn't care about the last hand.