Every poker player knows the sting of a bad beat. This occurs when a dominant hand that was heavily favored suddenly loses to an underdog, usually thanks to a miracle card on the turn or river. These moments are painful because they feel so unfair. Yet, they are a fundamental part of the game’s chaos.
In the online era, bad beats are no longer private disasters. They are broadcast to thousands of viewers in real time, immortalized in hand histories, and shared across social media. Watching a seven-figure pot swing on one river card causes such intense emotional whiplash that these beats become unforgettable. They shape poker folklore, tilt legends, and sometimes alter the course of poker history.
If reading about them makes you want to jump into the action, do it smartly. Start by playing on reputable real money poker sites that offer trusted software, fair games, and reliable payouts. Learn from these beats, manage your bankroll, and you will bounce back faster when variance decides to test you.
Here are ten online and live tournament bad beats that still make poker fans wince years later.
1. The 4 Million Runner-Runner Nightmare: Isaac Baron vs Evgenii Akimov (2024 WSOP Online Main Event)
With only four players remaining in the 2024 WSOP Online Main Event, Isaac Baron seemed destined for victory. Holding pocket kings, he flopped a top set on a board of K♣ 8♦ 2♠. Evgenii Akimov was drawing almost dead with 6♣ 4♠. Then, the poker gods intervened. The turn was the 5♦, and the river was the 3♥. This gave Akimov a backdoor straight and eliminated Baron in fourth place, earning him 1.8 million dollars. Analysts later calculated that the equity swing on that runout was worth more than two million dollars. This hand remains one of the cruelest online tournament beats ever recorded.
2. Aces Cracked for €341,000: Alexander Tkatschew vs Mikalai Vaskaboinikau (2024 GGMillion$)
In November 2024, during the GGMillion$ high roller tournament on GGPoker, Alexander Tkatschew put all his chips in preflop with aces against Mikalai Vaskaboinikau’s pocket queens. The board ran harmlessly until the river dropped the Q♥, giving Vaskaboinikau a set and crushing Tkatschew’s dreams. The German pro had been on the verge of winning his first GGMillion$ title but instead walked away with just over 84,000 dollars for seventh place, missing out on a 341,000 dollar payday. Few beats better capture the cruelty of variance in high-stakes online poker.
3. When Aces Meet Aces and Four Hearts Appear: Connor Drinan vs Cary Katz (2014 Big One for One Drop)
In the million-dollar buy-in Big One for One Drop tournament, both Connor Drinan and Cary Katz looked down at pocket aces. They laughed as they prepared to chop after putting all their money in before the flop. But poker had other plans. The board came out 2♦ K♥ 5♥ 4♥ 2♥, giving Katz the only possible flush with his ace of hearts and eliminating Drinan from the richest tournament in history. Commentator Norman Chad summed it up perfectly: “One player is about to be one million dollars sadder.”
4. Quad Aces Beaten by a Royal Flush: Justin Phillips vs Motoyuki Mabuchi (2008 WSOP Main Event)
This is the kind of hand that has to be seen to be believed. On Day 1 of the 2008 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event, Motoyuki Mabuchi picked up pocket aces and flopped a set. When the turn brought another Ace, he had quads, an unbeatable hand in almost every situation. However, the poker gods found the one exception. Justin Phillips hit the J♣ on the river with K♦ J♦ for a royal flush. Mabuchi could only stare in disbelief as his quad Aces were sent to the muck. This hand remains one of the most iconic in WSOP history.
5. “I Wanted to Fold”: Vanessa Selbst vs Gaelle Baumann (2017 WSOP Main Event)
Vanessa Selbst’s exit from the 2017 Main Event is a prime example of the agony of a bad beat. Early on Day 1B, Selbst flopped a top set of Aces against Gaëlle Baumann’s middle set of Sevens. The two women built a huge pot before the turn, which brought the final seven in the deck, giving Baumann quads. Selbst could not bring herself to fold her full house and called off her stack on the river. After busting out, Selbst said, “I wanted to fold, I really did,” capturing the helplessness that even elite pros feel in moments like this.
6. The Card That Changed Everything: Jonathan Duhamel vs Matt Affleck (2010 WSOP Main Event)
There were fifteen players remaining in the 2010 Main Event when Matt Affleck picked up pocket aces against Jonathan Duhamel’s pocket jacks. With a board of 10♣ 9♦ 7♥ Q♦, the chips went in, leaving Affleck a massive favorite. Then, the 8♦ hit on the river, giving Duhamel a straight and eliminating Affleck in heartbreaking fashion. Cameras caught Affleck’s stunned reaction as he walked away, covering his face with his hands. Duhamel went on to win the entire tournament. One river card had literally changed the course of both players’ careers.
7. The River That Launched a Boom: Chris Moneymaker vs Phil Ivey (2003 WSOP Main Event)
The most famous bad beat in poker history may have created the modern poker boom. With only ten players remaining in the 2003 Main Event, Phil Ivey flopped a set of nines against Chris Moneymaker’s top pair. After the money went in, Moneymaker needed an ace on the river to survive. He got exactly that. Ivey was eliminated, Moneymaker went on to win the Main Event, and millions of new players around the world signed up to play online poker. Without that one river card, poker might look very different today.
8. “The Bad Beat to End All Bad Beats”: Bryce Yockey vs Josh Arieh (2019 $50K Poker Players Championship)
During the 2019 Poker Players Championship, Bryce Yockey held a near-perfect 7-6-4-3-2 low hand in a 2-7 Triple Draw pot. Josh Arieh needed a really specific runout to win, and somehow he got it. Arieh started with a seven-high straight, then drew the only card that could beat Yockey, ending up with a 7-5-4-3-2. The odds were about 0.16 percent. Commentator Nick Schulman called it “the bad beat to end all bad beats.” For Yockey, it was the difference between a final-table dream and a fourth-place finish that still haunts highlight reels.
9. The Double Heartbreak of 2010: Filippo Candio vs Joseph Cheong and Matt Jarvis vs Michael Mizrachi
The 2010 WSOP Main Event had a lot of painful variance. Joseph Cheong’s pocket Aces got cracked by Filippo Candio’s 5♣7♣ when Candio rivered a straight after being nearly dead on the flop. Meanwhile, Matt Jarvis got dealt a tough hand when his pocket Nines were beaten by Michael Mizrachi’s A♠Q♠, ending his run at the final table. Mizrachi hit an ace on the flop, Jarvis turned a set, and then Mizrachi spiked another ace on the river to win. Two brutal hands in one broadcast made that year’s Main Event unforgettable.
10. The One-Outer Straight Flush: Erik Seidel vs Sami Bechahed (2024 WSOP $5K NLH)
Even legends aren’t safe. In a 2024 WSOP 5K event, Erik Seidel flopped a Queen-high flush with Q♣4♣ against Sami Bechahed’s smaller flush with 9♠7♠. The money went in, and Bechahed could only win if the single remaining 8♠ hit the river to complete his straight flush. The impossible happened. The 8♠ landed, the table gasped, and Seidel was left shaking his head as he exited in 21st place, earning about 26,000 dollars. The clip went viral as one of the rarest one-outers ever seen in a WSOP event.
