The Degenerate's Playbook Vol 4. How to Cope with a Bad Beat

Holy fuck Johnathon Simmons. You get paid over $6.5 million dollars each year and can’t make one free throw for me? Are you serious? Well, after cooling down from that atrocious bad beat in which we led by 10 points with over 3 minutes remaining, I’ve decided to write about the best ways to cope with a bad beat.

A bad beat in the gambling world can be defined “as an action at the end of a sporting event that results in the individual bettor going instantly from winning the bet to losing the bet”. In simpler terms, the worst feeling of all time. In a non-betting world, it would be something like this. Imagine going to the bar with your boys just looking for a good time. Instead, some girl catches your eye. You spend the entire night trying to get this chicks number. You waste hours acting like you give a shit about her major and buying her drinks that you secretly can’t afford. You’re flirting and she’s laughing… boy you’re on fire tonight! At the time, it seems to be worth the headache and hardship as in your final moments at the bar, it’s evident she’s into you. She then gets up playfully touching your arm and whispers, “my boyfriend’s here to pick me up”. Excuse me… Now do you understand the pain?

A game like that stays with you forever. I mean, a free throw? The more you bet, the more frequent it happens. If you’re like me, who likes to play anything and everything on the board, you no longer have any feelings. I’m at the delirious stage of gambling where when a bad beat occurs, I laugh and say “can you believe that” to myself. That’s a dangerous point to be at in this game. But I love it. Bad losses really test you. They make you question a lot about yourself. Dumb shit like “Who am I?” and “What are my goals?” pop into my head. To that I say:

Bad days or losses don’t scare me away, they make me hungry. The best way to forget about a tough loss is to make another play. Fire on anything and everything. Scared money don’t make money and that’s the fastest way to get over heartbreak. I will say this though, if it took a bad beat to lose, clearly you were on the right side of the bet. Stay consistent because those games will fall for you moving forward.