Bad Beat

You take your seat at the table ready to play your game. Things start off fine, nothing too exciting, up until you pick up pocket aces. One thing leads to another, and some jackass with 6-7 offsuit catches a lucky straight and takes half of your chips. That's how the downward spiral begins.

Did I play those aces right? Who calls with 6-7? I just got dealt A-J, should I raise or fold? Why do I even play poker? Before you know it, you don't even have enough chips to make the blinds. Game over.

Anyone that has played enough Hold 'Em is familiar with this situation. One or two ugly bad beats can spiral even the best players out of control and make them question what they're doing and why they're doing it.

The first 30 minutes of last night's game was a nightmare string of bad beat after bad beat. San Jose's best player gets viciously boarded and they only get a 2 minute power play. After failing to score on the man advantage, the Sharks give up a complete softy following a questionable hooking penalty. Pavelski's shot is definitively signaled a goal, only to have the call reversed by video overlords a thousand miles away. A freak puck bounce off the netting fails to be whistled dead, leading directly to a shorthanded goal.

From experience, I know a few things about bad beats:

1. They happen to everyone, especially good players (only good players get bad beats).
2. You can recover from 1 or 2 bad beats, but any more than that, you just need to accept it's just not your day.
3. Everything works out the way it should in the long run.
   

Am I making excuses for the Sharks performance last night? A little. But in perspective, Detroit is an excellent hockey team. You don't beat excellent hockey teams on the road very often, especially not after a long string of horrific luck (and officiating).

Last night proved it is an extraordinary task to beat the Red Wings or Sharks on their home ice. If those teams face up again in May, let's hope the puck drops here in San Jose.