I'd like to introduce a new feature here at UfP, with the help of the extremely cool Poker Hand Analyzer at Twodimes.net. All poker sessions are a mixture of the lucky and unlucky, but which was more powerful? I'm going to compare my worst bad beat of a session with my biggest suckout and see which was the bigger miracle.
Well, the first matchup is probably no contest, as it was just about as bad a beat as one could have. Interestingly enough, though, both times I was holding the exact same hand!
Playing in a loose $4/$8 game at the Trop in AC when I call with 9d7d in late position. My weak play is temporarily rewarded when the flop comes 773 with no diamonds. There's an early bet, one call by a Asian women who's playing everything and calling to the river, I raise, and it's just me and her. The turn is a Queen: check, I bet, she calls. The river is...another Queen, and she bets out! I mean, did she...could she...yep. She turns over Queen Jack to take it down.
I don't know why I was annoyed, though. I mean, I was only a 99.39% favorite after the flop! Only running Queens or Jacks could kill me, and there they were.
My suckout was a healthy support of my rule about slowplaying: Don't Slowplay! Okay...I mean, you flop quads or another absolute monster you can string people along a bit, but otherwise, you give enough free cards and eventually somebody might find something.
Later that day, in a game at the Taj, I call with the same 9d7d one off the button (don't let it be said that I ever learn a lesson!) only to be raised by the button. The blinds actually fold, and four or five of us see a 348 rainbow (one diamond) flop. Checked to me, the raiser checks, and we see a free turn: a 6, putting two spades on the board. Well, I figure I'll try a bet with my open-ender and some scary low cards, only to get raised again by the button. Folded around to me, I call (probably yet another bad play this hand) to see the river: the 5 of spades, making my straight but putting a possible flush out there. Check, he bets, I call to see him turn over pocket 8's!
The button slowplayed his top set on what looked like a completely safe board (and I guess it was; I obviously fold to a bet on the flop), giving me a chance to find a little something. Things weren't completely dire, though: I did have a 7.37% chance to win the hand after the flop.
So after one week, the standings are Bad Beats 1, Suckouts 0.