About Bad Beat Jackpots

A bad beat jackpot is a cash reward that is paid to poker players who suffer sufficiently horrible bad beats to qualify for the jackpot prize. Bad beat jackpots are activated when a very strong hand is beaten by an even stronger hand.

The purpose of bad beat jackpots is to lessen the burn you feel when you take a once-in-a-lifetime bad beat. At most poker sites and poker rooms, you have to have a hand like four 8s or better lose to an even better hand. If that happens, you’ll win a big load of cash.

The bad beat jackpot grows over time, with a little bit of money out of every pot going into the progressive jackpot. The longer the jackpot goes without being hit, the larger it becomes. The bad beat jackpots at online poker rooms can become massive within a short period of time.

If you happen to be the “unlucky” one who suffers a horrendous bad beat, you just might win a nice chunk of change. When the jackpot is activated, the loser of the hand gets a large percentage of the jackpot. A smaller piece of the jackpot is given to the winner and whatever’s left remaining is used to reseed the next jackpot.

Bad Beat Jackpot Rules

The rules are a little different at every online poker site but they usually contain two rules very similar to these:

  • The losing hand must be 4 of a Kind 8s or better
  • Both players’ hole cards must be used

These rules mean that you have to lose with four 8’s or better. If you lose with four 7s, you came close but you didn’t quite qualify for the jackpot prize. The two hole card rule means that you can’t have just a single 8 in your hand and three on the board. You need to actually use both hole cards to make your hand. The same thing goes for your opponent.

Bad Beat Jackpot Payouts

Even though the winners of bad beat jackpots get a huge chunk of money, they don’t get 100% of the jackpot. The money is divvied up among the winner of the hand, the loser of the hand and the other players at the table.

For example, the bad beat jackpot at Absolute Poker is divided up into the following amounts:

  • 25% rolls over to the next jackpot
  • 10% goes to the house

The remaining 65% is divided up as follows:

  • 50% goes to the loser of the hand
  • 25% goes to the winner of the hand
  • $1000 is paid to every other player at the table
  • The rest of the money is divided up among every single person playing the same poker game and same stakes as the table at which the bad beat took place

So out of a $1,000,000 jackpot, here’s how the payouts would look:

Next jackpot: $250,000
House: $100,000

Loser of the hand: $325,000
Winner of the hand: $162,500
Everyone else at the table: 1,000

The rest of the money would be divided up and spread equally among everyone else playing the same game and same stakes.