Top 10 biggest bad beats in poker history

Anyone who’s played poker for any prolonged period of time has experienced their share of bad beats, whether they were on the receiving end or the ones delivering the bad beat.

Situations in poker where you get your chips in the middle with a strong hand and your opponent has no outs are very rare. More often, they’ll have a few miracle cards to save them, and, on occasion, these cards will make an appearance to ruin your day.

Because bad beats are a normal part of the game, experienced players don’t dwell on them. That said, some bad beats, like the ones on this list, are especially brutal and worth going over as they represent the perfect storm of everything going wrong at the worst possible moment.

10. Ivey vs. Dwan classic
Let’s start with a legendary hand between Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan on the Million Dollar Cash Game, which resulted in the first televised pot of over $1,000,000.

The game was three-handed at this point, and Tom opened from the button with 6-7 of hearts. Ivey 3-bet with A-2, Antonius got out of the way, and Dwan called.

The flop came J-5-3 with two clubs, giving both players an inside straight draw. Ivey fired a continuation bet, Dwan called in position, and they proceeded to the ultimate cooler turn – the four of hearts.

This gave both players a straight, and being short-handed, they did not hesitate to pile all the money in the middle. Of course, Ivey got the bad news in the end as he was drawing dead against Dwan’s nut straight. By the end of it all, the pot ballooned to over $1.1 million, and it was probably the most exciting hand the poker world had witnessed up to that point!

9. Aces full ends Selbt’s Main Event hopes
We’re back to the WSOP Main Event, but the year is 2017. Vanessa Selbst, one of the best female poker players in history, has flopped a set with pocket aces on a board of A-7-5, all clubs. She had a solid hand, but her opponent, Gaelle Baumann, could still beat her with a flush.

The turn brings another seven, though, and Selbt’s concerns disappear. She now has the top full house, and all she’s thinking about is how to get as many chips as possible from her opponent.

After an inconsequential four hit the river, following some betting and raising, all chips found their way into the middle. However, instead of dragging a massive pot, Vanessa was sent to the rail as Gaelle tabled pocket sevens for turned quads.

Perhaps the most painful part of it all was that Selbst only lasted about an hour in the tournament, but having aces full cracked will do that.

8. Duhamel finds the river miracle
You’re probably familiar with the name of Jonathan Duhamel. He’s the man who took down the 2010 Main Event. But on his way to the victory, he managed to deliver a pretty big bad beat to his fellow player Matt Affleck.

Duhamel held pocket jacks against Affleck’s pocket aces. All the money went in on the turn, with the board reading T-9-7-Q. Jonathan had ten outs to save him, and one of those outs came in the form of an eight on the river to give him a straight.

It's not the most brutal of bad beats in absolute terms, but with just 15 players left in the Main Event, it has a special sting to it.

7. Flush on flush violence
Bad beats and coolers aren’t reserved just for tournaments. They happen in cash games just as often and can be just as (if not more) painful.

One of the Hustler Casino Live regulars, Andy, found this out the hard way when he flopped an ace-high flush on a three-diamond board. Sounds great, unless your opponent has you pipped with a straight flush, which is exactly what happened.

Mariano was the lucky recipient of the pot amounting to over $600,000, as no cards came to help Andy get away from what he was convinced was the nuts.

Technically, not a bad beat, as Mariano had the best hand all along, but losing with the nut flush on an unpaired board with no one-liners to a straight flush still qualifies. How often does that happen?

6. Distasteful slow roll promptly punished
Slow-rolling your opponents is bad poker etiquette, and although there are no official rules against it, every now and again, karma catches up with these players.

Mikel Habb learned this the hard way after taking an extremely long time to call Sam Abernathy’s all-in holding pocket kings and pretending he had a tough decision. After eventually making the call and finding out he was against pocket sixes, he was anything but gracious about it.

His behavior was punished in the most brutal of ways, though, as a six fell on the river to give Abernathy a winning hand. A bad beat? For sure. Did anyone feel bad about it (except for Habb)? Most certainly not.

5. A runner-runner miracle
No poker player wants to lose a hand, no matter how little equity they have. But sometimes, you get it in so bad that after you win, you can’t help but feel a bit embarrassed. And it happens even to the best.

In an EPT High Roller event, Olivier Busquet made a misstep and jammed his ace-deuce into pocket kings of Sven Reichardt. The flop then came with a king and two eights, giving Reichardt a top full house and leaving very little hope for Olivier.

But, once again, poker gods demonstrated their weird sense of humor as an ace came on the turn, followed by another ace on the river. If you were wondering, Busquet’s chances of winning the hand after that flop were under 1%.

4. Pocket aces vs. pocket aces in a million-dollar tournament
Bad beats always hurt, but when you are eliminated from a tournament with a $1,000,000 buy-in, and your opponent has the exact same hand before the flop, that takes things to a completely different level.

This is the very feeling Connor Drinan had to endure in the 2014 Big One for One Drop event, where he got it all in with pocket aces against Cary Katz, who also had pocket aces. Mathematically, this is supposed to be a chop most of the time, and after a good laugh, everyone can move on to the next hand.

Poker gods had different plans this time around, though. The flop brought two hearts, and Katz was the one holding the ace of hearts. This was slightly concerning but still not alarming. Then, the turn brought another heart.

Drinan stared intently into the board as the dealer burned and turned the final card, and it was the two of hearts, giving Katz the nut flush and sending Connor to the rail. He may have lost a million there but walked away with a bad beat story that will last him a lifetime.

3. Hellmuth’s trips cracked on The Big Game
Hellmuth’s bad beats on live streams and TV shows are often memorable as he’s not known as the man who takes misfortunes at the tables in stride. However, one hand tops the list.

It was Phil’s clash on The PokerStars Big Game, where he flopped trip nines against pocket kings of the loose cannon Ernest Wiggins. After all the money went in on the flop, they decided to run the remaining board four times.

Hellmuth was an 85% favorite when the money went in, but of the four runs, he only managed to win the first one, while the remaining three went the loose cannon’s way as he made a flush once and king’s full of nines twice.

2. Quads are not enough in the WSOP Main Event
WSOP Main Event bad beats are often very painful, even when they don’t involve big-name players. For many amateurs, this is a dream-come-true tournament, and they want at least a good crack at a deep run.

Motoyuki Mabuchi was denied this opportunity when he rivered quad aces with two aces in the whole, and the only way for him to lose a hand was if his opponent Justin Phillips held King-Jack suited in diamonds.

So, when Mabuchi shoved and his opponent called, he was thrilled to turn over his quad aces, but his enthusiasm was immediately curbed as Phillips showed the best of all hands in poker – the royal flush. What a way to bust the biggest poker tournament of the year!

1. A bad beat that changed poker history: Moneymaker vs. Ivey
On his way to the historical triumph in the 2003 Main Event, Chris Moneymaker had his fair share of good luck and delivered more bad beats than he received. However, one hand from that tournament will remain forever etched in our memories.

It was a hand Chris played against the GOAT himself, Phil Ivey, with ten players remaining. After flopping trips with AQ, Moneymaker bet out, and Ivey made the call with pocket nines. The turn brought one of the remaining two nines to give Ivey a full house and virtual lock on the hand.

All the chips went into the pot on the turn, and Chris Moneymaker was on the brink of losing a massive pot when Poker Gods delivered an ace on the river to give him a bigger full house.

Moneymaker scooped another pot, eliminated the toughest opponent remaining in the field, and went on to win the Main Event, triggering what came to be known as the Moneymaker boom. So, as far as bad beats go, this one came with a lot of positives to it, and even Ivey would probably agree.