Bad Beat Jackpots- How Do They Work

This is all from my memory banks so please excuse me if I get something wrong! Usually you have to satisfy a few criteria to win a bad beat poker jackpot:

1. Play at a table that supports the jackpot of course. This means you pay a little extra in rake on each hand to fund the jackpot.
2. Get a qualifying hand which is usually very strong - eg quad 8s or better - and complete the hand by going all the way to the showdown with at least one other player. You won't win the jackpot if you fold to a better hand for example.
3. Lose the hand at the showdown to someone with a better hand.

I think what happens is that the bad beat loser gets the majority of the jackpot, and the others at the table also receive a small slice of the pie too. So you can win some even if you are not in the hand at the end.

Here is how Wikipedia explains the bad beat:

"A bad beat jackpot is a prize that is paid when a sufficiently strong hand is shown down and loses to an even stronger hand held by another player.[3] Not all poker games offer bad beat jackpots, and those that do have specific requirements for how strong a losing hand must be to qualify for the jackpot. For example, the losing hand may be required to be four-of-a-kind or better. There may be additional requirements as well. For example, in Texas hold 'em there is usually a requirement that both hole cards play in both the losing and winning hands, or that where a full house is the minimum (usually aces full of jacks or higher), both hole cards must be used to make the three-of-a-kind in the full house.

Bad beat jackpots are usually progressive, often with a small rake being taken out of each pot to fund the jackpot (in addition to the regular rake). When a jackpot is won, it is usually split among all players sitting at the table at the time of the bad beat with the losing hand getting the largest share, followed by the winning hand, and all the other players dividing the remainder. Generally, only the best losing hand is eligible to win the largest share, even if another hand would also qualify.

Specific rules, collections, payout percentages, and amounts vary greatly from one casino or cardroom to the next, and are sometimes changed.

The purpose of the bad beat jackpot is partly to enhance customer relations by softening the psychological blow, and also to encourage more aggressive play"

I played Hold'Em at the land casino and they had a progressive going for those who lose after being dealt two Aces, I believe it was, and I saw a woman win. I also played in online rooms where the announcement popped up that someone had won the "bad beat." Sometimes, the progressive can get up there to fairly high amounts.

Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_beat on March 13, 2012

Yes, I have seen one at the Hinkley casino. I have also been playing online and had the message pop up that the bad beat had just been one, but I was not at the table. It does add a bit of excitement to playing, although the odds of being the one are very slim, indeed!

To loose a hand for a quad? -never saw that anywhere, but it is possible if the other player have a straight flush. To hit a jackpot of that nature have the same probability that i have in, one day, to find gold in my yard. 😲

That's why a hit like that is a jackpot.

A bad beat jackpot is a hand that is beat by another for instance at the casino I play at there 2 bad beat hold em jack pots 1. aces full of 2-10's beaten by better and 2. aces full of jacks beaten by a 4 of a kind or better. the first gets 1000 dollars the second gets the full jackpot which is usually around 25k, but I have seen it as high as 60k. The play has to go to showdown and both players must show cards. The busted hand gets 60% of the jackpot the winning hand gets 30% and the table splits 10%. Other casinos have different rules.

'Slim, not sure if you know this or not. You probably do, but I don't see this in every card room, so I thought I would mention it. One place I used to play would actually have some kind of code beside each poker room to tell you if it is a "bad beat" poker room. Most of the penny and nickel ones are not, but what the code means is if the badbeat is hit, players in all those rooms will get a tiny percentage of the badbeat. So, the player who is beat gets a percentage, the one with the hand that wins gets a percentage, then there is a small percentage divided up by all the players in the bad beat rooms, too. Just wanted to share that with you. 🙂

You are welcome. You had me wanting to play again, lol, so I played a few hands at Bovada in the penny rooms, and I turned 2.00 into 4.70 something, lol. I am starting small. Obviously, lol