Updated November 2026
A bad beat is losing a pot you were a big favorite to win, usually to a lucky card late in the hand. Losing with aces to kings when the money went in before the flop is a bad beat, and it happens 18 times in 100.
Everyone gets them. Those who win at poker keep playing well after one, and that's most of the difference.
| Spot | You lose, in 100 |
|---|---|
| Aces against kings, all-in before the flop | 18 |
| They have 2 outs with one card to come | 4.3 |
| They have 1 out with one card to come | 2.2 |
| At least one loss in 10 all-ins as an 80% favorite | 89 |
You re-raise and your opponent moves all-in with kings. You call with aces and you're winning 81.7 times in 100.
Nothing changes.
Two kings are left among the 44 unseen cards, so you're down to about 4.5 losses in 100.
A king on the river. You played it perfectly, and you lost.
A bad beat is when the worse hand gets lucky. A cooler is when two very strong hands meet and the money was always going in, like a set against a higher set. Nobody got lucky after the money went in, and nobody could have got away from it.
Often, once you put your chips in with an edge. Even an 80% favorite loses at least one of 10 all-ins 89 times in 100. Try your own numbers below.
If your opponent had the right price to call, it wasn't really a bad beat. A flush draw that hits has done what it was supposed to do 35 times in 100. Being unhappy about it won't change the math.
The real bad beats are the ones where they paid far too much and got there, and those are the ones you want. Every time they call wrong, you make money on average.
Twelve spots in three rounds.
A promotion some rooms run: if a very strong hand loses, a prize pool is shared out among the players. The money comes from a small extra deduction from pots.
They feel that way because you see more hands. Our page on whether online poker is rigged does the math.
No. If you're getting bad beats, you're getting your money in ahead, and that's what you're trying to do.
Aces against kings is an exact count over every suit pairing and all 1,712,304 boards. The rest is card counting: 2 outs out of 46 unseen cards when you only know your own hand and the board, and the calculator multiplies the chance of winning each all-in, treating each as independent.
Send them the math.