Random Poker Thoughts

So what exactly is a bad beat? You’ll hear this phrase tossed around so much recently, that if someone loses a game they are more likely to place blame on the sports betting gods over their own handicapping. This is basic sports gambling psychology. If you lose a game by 1 point, it does not meet the basis for a bad beat, but if you lose by a last 2nd pick – 6, that’s another story.

You see, betting on sports for as long as I have, I have lost every single way one could imagine. Half court shots with zero time left on the clock when the shot doesn’t hurt the outcome of the game. Ten point ‘dogs losing by 11 in double OT? Yep, I’ve seen it all.

Those same games that with a few minutes left you make the mistake of saying, “well the only way I can possibly lose this one is if” undoubtedly awakening the gambling gods and their notoriously cruel sense of humor. These are the types of bad beats that will keep you up at night.

You can’t always take bad luck like this on the chin. However, remember that things will most likely even out eventually. I’m not writing these articles to tell you about me being the most unlucky sports gambler on the planet.

In reality, I’m saying it’s the opposite. I could babble on and on about the importance of sports gambling psychology and tell you about my beats, even naming what I had to eat and drink at the time, the names of the players involved, where I was watching the game, and how I got there. This is how hard we can take these things.

Even though I’ve had my fair share of good fortune also, I probably couldn’t name more than a couple of times where luck was on my side and had a miracle occur to my benefit. Although I do make a prominent living by betting, just like most gamblers, I never feel more alive than when the chips are being raked away from me. The feeling is so distinguishable and hard to forget that they stick in our minds for years.

It’s easy to tell the more seasoned bettors from the newbies by the way the take their bad beats. A new gambler will call me 3 weeks after still upset about a blocked touchdown as time ran off the clock and how he lost a big bet because of this.

Let me give you a simple sports gambling psychology scenario: an experienced bettor will have stored this hard loss in his mind and moved forward with his life. Yes, it probably hurts both newbies and vets evenly, but the veteran bettor knows that it’s not good to keep thinking about this, and eventually you will get triple OT and make that money back ten fold.

Rich Allen is an expert in Sports Gambling Psychology. His Sports Betting Professor Systems have sold over 250,000 units and cover all major sports including horse racing. Download a FREE copy of The Sports Betting Insider’s Guide at: http://richallensports.com/sports-gambling-psychology

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