·      What is the Bad Beat Jackpot?

Many casinos and poker rooms have what’s called the “Bad Beat Jackpot,” which is paid out in a game when a highly ranked hand is beaten by an even higher ranked hand. 

·      What's considered the Bad Beat?

A full house with Ace’s over Jacks losing to at least quads or better.  See the full explanations below.

·        So just exactly how does the Bad Beat work?

1)      The minimum losing hand must be at least Ace’s full of Jacks

2)      The minimum winning hand must be at least quads

3)      Both players hole (or pocket) cards must play

4)      The best five cards in all situations will be used
*in the case of the player's hole card being used as a kicker matching the board, the board card will be used.
(ex. Player is holding A/8, with A/A/A/8/2 on the board...the 8 on the board will be used as the kicker)

            Example 1 – BAD BEAT

Player A is holding 4S/4C and player B is holding 5D/6D.  The board is:

3C    4H   4D   7D   8D

            This gives player A quad 4’s while giving Player B a straight flush.  This is

considered the bad beat!  Player A would receive the 50% of the jackpot,

player B would receive the 25%, and the other players at the table would

share the remaining 25%.

Example 2 – NOT A BAD BEAT

Player A is holding 7S/8S and player B is holding 9H/8H.  The board is:

                                                9S   10S   JS   9C   9D

This gives player A a straight flush while giving player B quad 9’s.  This, however, would not be considered the bad beat.  Both of Player B’s hole cards did not play.  Player B has quad 9’s with the JS as the kicker.  The 8H does not play.

Example 3 – BAD BEAT

Using example 2, let’s just change one card:

Player A is holding 7S/8S and player B is holding 9H/AH.  The board is:

                                                9S    10S   JS   9C   9D

This gives player A a straight flush while giving player B quad 9’s.  This would be considered the bad beat.  In this case, both of Player B’s hole cards did play.  Player B now has quad 9’s with the AH as the kicker.*

*most casinos and poker rooms require that quads must use a pocket pair.  Big Stacks is just requiring that both hole cards play.

 Example 4 – NOT A BAD BEAT

Player A is holding 4S/5S and player B is holding 9H/9C.  The board is:

                                                6S    7S   8S   9S   9D

This gives player A a straight flush while giving player B quad 9’s.  This, however, would not be considered the bad beat.  Both of Player A’s hole cards did not play.  The five highest cards must play, so the straight flush would be the 5S through 9S, not the 4S through 8S.

·        Who gets paid?

There will be 3 (or 4) payouts for the table:

1)      Each player not involved with the Bad Beat will share 25% of the jackpot.

2)      The winner of the hand (the higher of the Bad Beat hands) will receive 25% of the jackpot.

3)      The loser of the hand (the lower of the Bad Beat hands) will receive 50% of the jackpot.

(*)    In the event of a multiple Bad Beat, losing hands will split according to rank of the hands.

Player A is holding KS/KD, player B is holding QH/QC and player C is holding AC/JC.  The board is:

                                                2C    9S   AS   AH   AD