After eight years of reporting on poker tournaments around the world, there isn’t a bad beat you can tell me about that I haven’t either seen or experienced firsthand. Even so, every once in a while a hand takes place that leaves me shaking my head.

Such a hand took place late on Day 1B of the Mid-States Poker Tour Running Aces $1,100 Main Event in Columbus, Minn., back in February.

With the blinds at 1,000-2,000 plus an ante of 300, Chris Meyers raised to 4,000 holding A A and was met by an all-in three-bet to 20,700 from Whitney Bell, who shoved with the 9 9. When action reached Jason Hartwig in the big blind, he four-bet all in over the top for 45,800 with A K. Meyers, of course, called off his stack of 41,000.

As far as strategy, all three played their hands exactly as they should have. Meyers was obviously going to raise with the best hand in poker, and in order to get action, he raised the minimum. Unfortunately for Bell, he looked down at a nice pocket pair, which justified his shoving his 10-big-blind stack (a 20,000 stack, a big blind of 2,000, so 10 big blinds in his stack). Hartwig also looked down at a quality hand and understandably moved all in to try to isolate Bell. Meyers had an easy call.

As the cards lay, Meyers was a 72 percent favorite, Bell had a 19 percent chance to win, and Hartwig had a 7 percent chance. Even after the flop came down 10 K 4 to pair Hartwig, Meyers’ chances to win increased to 77 percent.

Bell needed to find one of the two remaining nines in the deck on the turn or river in order to survive — something that would happen 9 percent of the time — while Hartwig had a 13 percent chance of either catching another king or hitting running straight or flush cards.

Remember, this is a hand about bad beats, so you can probably guess what’s coming. The dealer burned and turned the 7, which gave Hartwig the nut flush draw, which he’d hit 24 percent of the time. Still, Meyers was a 71 percent favorite to more than double his stack.

The dealer burned one last time and put out the 3 on the river. Hartwig hit the long shot to make an ace-high flush, crack Meyers’ aces and go from worst to first. Meyers was understandably upset to lose the hand, while Bell accepted his fate and headed for the exit.

As the old poker saying goes, the game is 90 percent skill and 10 percent luck in the long run, but in the short term, the reverse is true. Clearly, luck plays a big role in each individual hand. Everyone can play their hands to perfection but not get the outcome they want and oftentimes deserve.

All you can do is play your cards the best you can. Once you do, keep your fingers crossed.