Ever had a session where you know you played like crap?  Nevermind…it’s a rhetorical question.  If you read that first sentence and started shaking your head you’re either delusional, very lucky, or very very very good.  I’m none of those things, so I’ll happily admit there are days where despite everything I’ve learned about poker over the last few years I still play like a randy virgin taking his first shot at popping his cherry…in other words, I am completely devoid of insight or style, and generally fumble around or **** things up. After a hell session it can sometimes pay dividents to reflect on where things went wrong, and get back to basics.  In this post, I’m going to revisit some of the core texas hold em poker tips to avoid donkey plays, particularly in tournament poker.  

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Taking a bad beat in poker can be a really frustrating thing.  A bad beat, in poker parlance, is losing a hand that is initially thought of as a winning hand.  There are varying degrees of bad beats.  Frequently, a bad beat is preceeded by some form of muppetry played out by a donkey who the poker gods have a hard on for.  An example - having your all in bet called by someone with bottom pair against your set, only to see them hit running cards for a straight.  A lesser degree of bad beat but no less typical, would be when someone who has a pair of aces  continues through the betting rounds upping the ante everytime only to lose to a player who simply gets lucky in making a gutshot draw.  Poker bad beats such as this happens all the time and are considered to be a normal occurrence that most of us need to learn how to accept.  Ask any poker player, they can tell you a bad beat story.  If you find a player who has a poker bad beat story but chooses not to tell it, chances are they can handle themselves at the table.

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Yep, most of us who know our way around youtube’s treasure trove of poker clippings have watched this puppy at least a couple of times, but it’s an unlikely hand that unfolded in a ‘penny for porn’ storyline fashion.   It’s not just the fact that three players wake up with the top three pairs.  Nope, whilst that’s interesting, it’s not of itself the most intriguing part of this tale. 

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