“That Is a Bad Beat”

 

A friend of mine knows a guy who runs a bar. A lot of the folks who frequent this bar tend to play cards and, like good card players do, talk a lot about playing cards. However, in the world of poker playing anecdotes, there’s always a danger that someone is going to start talking about their bad beats.

A bad beat is when a player wins even though the odds are against that person winning.

Pretty much any time you draw to an inside straight or two pair magically becomes a full house on the run in Texas Holdem, that’s a bad beat.

Anyway, sometimes bad beat stories are fun. Sometimes, they just turn into a player’s excuse to whine.

Because of this, at this guy’s bar in Philly, there’s a special tip jar set aside just for those who would grouse about their bad beats. Whenever anyone starts to tell their favorite bad beat story, the bartender points at the tip jar and waits for money to be deposited. Only then does the bartender listen (well, partially listen anyway) until after the story ends.

Then, he looks at the teller, says “That IS a bad beat” and goes on about his day. This just goes to show that even when you pay, no one is interested in your bad beat story.