Sorry, Not Every Losing Bet Is A Bad Beat

Green Bay Packers lost to Los Angeles Rams in a close game. The team could have won the game if they had taken a different approach. The NFL's Monday Night Football game offered an example of misapplications of the "bad beat" designation. It's typical of people who believe that every loss is due to luck and every win to skill. They are wrong. There are many examples of this in the gambling world. For example, the points total for the Monday night game was 39.5.

A bad beat is a loss in memorable fashion. It's a game that ends on a desperate lateral play that reverses a wagering outcome. The team you bet on the moneyline is up 15 with a minute to play and gives up a touchdown and a 2-point conversion. The other one is simply a coin flip where you called heads and it landed on tails. Patrick Mahomes leads his team on game-winning drive.

There's a difference between the terms "tough beat" and "bad beat". Poker players agree that a bad beat is a percentage chance that can be ascribed to the suck-out in question. Nobody wants to hear a " bad bet" story. A true gambler doesn't care about another gamblers' bad beats. He's probably thinking about his own more brutal examples. It's better to bemoan your luck than complain about someone else's.