New No Bad Beats Poker Site Aims to Eliminate Suck Outs

If a poker game has no bad beats, is it still poker? A new website, NoBadBeatsPoker.com, aims to answer that question by introducing a form of the game that eliminates the bad beat – at least in some sense.

Essentially, No Bad Beats Poker allows players to move all-in on specially marked tables without any fear of losing their money. These tables are marked with a certain percentage – such as 60% or 70% -- which sets a lower limit on what would qualify as a bad beat. If any player gets into an all-in pot in which they have a percentage chance of winning the hand that is better than the limit at the time the money went in, they will get their money back from the pot even if they lose the hand. The rest of the pot will still go to the winning player.

"We aim to eliminate bad beats in poker," said Aaron Walker of No Bad Beats Poker, “which studies have shown are the greatest frustration of poker players today.”

Walked said that many bad beats occur after a player has outplayed their opponent, thus making it feel like an inappropriate outcome for a game of skill.

“That makes a bad beat seem inappropriate and unfair to many players, being that poker is a competitive game of skill and strategy,” he said.

The rule change may seem like a simple way to allow players to avoid bad beats, but it actually has rather significant strategic ramifications that go well beyond preventing “suck outs.” In many cases, players who are in the lead in hands can be absolutely sure they are freerolling in large pots if they simply move all-in early in the hand. Conversely, players who would normally be getting the correct odds to call with a fairly strong draw – but one that still gives them a relatively low chance of winning, such as 30% or so – may need to let go of those draws, knowing that they’ll be unable to win any chips from an opponent even if they do come from behind and thus are no longer getting the necessary odds to make a call.

No Bad Beats Poker is scheduled to launch for beta testing on January 16, and will be a part of the Everleaf Poker Network.