You can't find an Internet poker room where players don't type a phrase like, "This never happens in the real world!" every second. The fact of the matter is, yes, bad beats do happen in the real world. When the randomness comes out of a computer rather than a dealer's ring-laden hand, the whole process just seems more suspicious.

It pays to be psychologically braced for opponents who take a bad beat and suddenly lose it. They may even rattle on and on, after being eliminated from a tournament, as an observer.

As a player you have a couple of choices. One is to ignore your table's version of Mount Vesuvius and wait for the eruption to cease. If you need help focusing, always remember that you can turn off player or observer chat.

If the whiners get threatening or abusive, you can also report them to your site's support personnel for corrective action. Nobody needs to hear that kind of stuff, so you do all players a favor.

The one thing you shouldn't do is engage the hothead in baiting conversation, no matter how tempting it may be. If the site does decide to levy ramifications on the jerk, you don't want to be associated as an instigator or accomplice.