Matt Affleck Bad Beat Likely The Worst in Poker History

Q: What Was The Worst Bad Beat in Poker History?

A: Bad beats happen every day in the poker world. Each and every day, many thousands of bad beats take place in online poker rooms, casinos and home games across the world. To the person on the losing end of the beat, their beat was the worst that the world has ever seen.

What makes a bad beat truly memorable? What makes a bad beat truly terrible?

Since televised poker took off after Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker in 2003, there have been some truly memorable (and televised) bad beats, including Scott Montgomery vs Paul Snead and Jean-Robert Bellande vs Sarkis Akopyan.

In my opinion, however, the worst ever bad beat took place in a hand between Matt Affleck and Jonathan Duhamel at the 2010 World Series of Poker main event.

Let's set the stage for this bad beat. There are two tables left in the 2010 World Series of Poker main event. There are 15 players left - the top 8 finishers are all guaranteed at least $1 million, with the winner guaranteed nearly $9 million.

Matt Affleck starts the hand with pocket Aces, while Duhamel starts the hand with pocket Jacks. If Affleck wins the hand, he is the DOMINANT chip leader with just 15 players left.

With the board reading 10d-9c-7h-Qd, Affleck and Duhamel get their stacks into the middle of the table. At the time, Affleck was a 79% favorite to win the hand.

Here is how the hand ended up playing out:



Now, the beat in this hand was particularly bad, as:

1) Matt Affleck would have had a very reasonable chance of winning the World Series of Poker main event if he had won this hand, given the fact that he would have been a massive chip leader with just 15 players left

2) The difference between 1st place and 15th place was nearly $8.5 million

3) The beat was televised for the entire world to see

Matt Affleck's reaction (most would have reacted the same given the amount of money on the line, in my opinion) made this beat even worse, as now this hand will live in poker infamy forever.

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Given all of the different factors involved, the Matt Affleck beat has to be the worst bad beat in poker history.


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