Cooler

Basic Definition

A cooler is a hand where you lose a big pot with a very strong hand to an even stronger one, in a spot where almost any player would have put the money in the same way. Neither player made a mistake. The cards simply set up two strong hands against each other.

Specific Situation

• Preflop, you hold KK and go all-in. Your opponent calls with AA. Folding kings preflop would be a big mistake in most games, so losing here is a cooler.


• On a 972 flop, you have 99 (top set) and your opponent has 77 (bottom set). For the set of sevens, it's a cooler.


• Your AK makes a flush, but your opponent turns a full house. With such strong hands on both sides, the chips almost always go in.

Important Information

• A cooler is different from a bad beat. In a bad beat, you were a big favorite when the money went in and lost to a lucky card. In a cooler, the losing hand was strong but behind, and the situation was hard to avoid.


• Coolers are part of the game's variance. Judge your play by your decisions, not by whether a cooler happened.


• Occasionally, a strong read lets you fold a hand that looks like a cooler. But folding big hands too often costs more over the long run.

Examples of Term Usage

"Kings against aces preflop? That's just a cooler, nothing you could do."