try feeding a family on the out come
worst day of my life, I was 3 months into the worst run of my life. I was scrapping a living in small live cash games and online STTs but previously it'd been live MTTs that had provided most of my money and that had provided for my family following a reduncancy (with no payout)
I needed a hit soon. Finally I'd had a tourney where I'd won all my coin flips, got all my bluffs through, hit all my draws. It was only a £50 game but the field was fairly deep and 1st prize was about £3k.
14 players left and me and one other player have 50% of the chips in play between us. None of the other remaining players were the decent regular players. All I had to do was cruise to the final table and use my experience to pick off the short stacks faster than the other big stack who was a relatively tight player so would probably fall behind me.
Just then the other big stack raises 4xBB UTG. it passes round to me on the button. I look down at A,A. I was basically passing everything except that and KK. even AK and QQ were going in the muck in that situation against that player. I re-raised 16xBB trying to send a clear message that he was in a hand with the only player in the tourney that could hurt him and he should pass. Instead he pushed all in.
Obviously I have to call. He had QQ. I flopped trip aces. he rivered a straight.
Now, I don't expect any sympathy. As I've said, beats happen. I'm 9/2 favourite but AA has to loose sometimes. It's a truely terrible bad beat because
a) over pair loosing to under pair is a beat anyway
b) It's on the back of a 3 month run of no final tables, when I'd normally make 1 or 2 finals a week when running good. The bad run actually lasted about 9 months
c) If I win that hand I have 50% of the chips in play and can cruise to 1st
d) I have a family needs feeding, amortgage that needs paying and many other bills coming in
e) the worst kick in the teeth is that the mug played like an idiot and went out in 9th, bluffing off MY chips
In all seriousness, I don't want any sympathy for the bad beat. I thought I'd get it off my chest because it's why I get REALLY annoyed about people moaning about their one off bad beats in small stake online games, why I get REALLY annoyed when people say online poker is rigged, just because they loose a couple of hands and why I know from exprience that gambling for a living, even in a game of skill where you have an edge, is a very high risk business and most people will fail trying.
Poker, like fruit machines is a VERY hard way to make an easy living.
...and relax