A one-outer on the river prevented a bad beat jackpot from being triggered for what may have been the first time ever at the Lodge Card Club near Austin, Texas.
Yes, you read that right. The Pot-Limit Omaha Bad Beat Jackpot at the card room, which is co-owned Doug Polk, Andrew NeemeAnd Brad Owenhas risen from its starting value of $100,000 to $118,000. The jackpot qualifier was reached on the flop when two players each hit a straight flush in a mid-stakes game. But the qualifier ended when a one-outer royal flush appeared on the river, making the hand a real bad beat and no one paid anything.
Lodge Bad Beat Jackpot Details
The flop came J♦9♦10♦and one player had 8♦7♦ between his four cards, while the other K♦Q♦giving both players a straight flush. This was good news for the player with the weaker straight flush, as it gave him a hand that qualified for the Bad Beat Jackpot.
To hit a BBJ in PLO at The Lodge Card Club, you must have a straight flush on the flop and exactly two hole cards must be played. Under these rules, a straight flush losing to a straight flush would qualify. The payouts are that 50% of the pot – in this case $57,200 – is awarded to the player with the losing hand, 25% to the player with the winning hand ($28,600), and the remaining 25% is split among the others at the table and in the room. There were 39 players in the room in games, each would have received an equal share of $3,900, while the table share would have been $5,700 per person.
It seemed like a cause for celebration for everyone involved. One player won nearly $60,000, another took home around $30,000, and even the players who weren’t there got a few thousand each. But due to a special rule at the poker room in Round Rock, Texas, no one ended up getting a penny of the jackpot.
The turn card was the irrelevant J♥but the A♦ on the river was very relevant and costly. At the Lodge Card Club, the largest poker room in Texas, there is a unique rule that prevents the Bad Beat Jackpot from being triggered.
This Bad Beat Jackpot is “flop only,” meaning that for it to be triggered, a straight flush must lose to a better hand on the flop. But according to the rules, both the winning and losing hands must be flopped. So in the case of the hand above, the winning hand – a royal flush – came on the river, making the “Sad” Beat Jackpot null and void.
Doug Polk’s team buys what will be the largest poker room in Texas
