Nearly one quarter million dollar poker bad beat jackpot hits.

[Alan Mendelson]

It happened at Pechanga in Temecula this afternoon. Photos and report: http://www.alanbestbuys.com/id242.html

[Alan Mendelson]

I've never been the "winner" or "loser" in a bad beat hand, but I have been at a "bad beat table" four times over the years. The most recently was Hollywood Park in mid August when my "table share" was $620. "Bad beats" hit more frequently there at Hollywood because to trigger the jackpot you need Aces full of 9s or better beaten by quads or better (which is a straight flush or royal). At some other casinos its Aces full of tens, or Aces full of Jacks and that's where the jackpot amounts can grow quickly because bad beats don't occur as often.

Years ago it was "aces full" and that meant aces full of anything beaten would trigger a jackpot, and I remember playing at Hollywood Park several years ago when two bad beat jackpots hit only a few minutes apart. And I remember when at Hollywood Park one table had two bad beat jackpots within an hour of each other.

For a short time, The Bicycle Casino had a bad beat jackpot that paid $100,000 for quads beaten by quads and the "loser" was paid $40,000. That evening the loser had quad tens and was beaten by quad Jacks. During the course of the hand, the player with quad jacks muttered to the player with quad tens "you got me" as he tried to get the player with quad tens to bet more.

Well, the player with quad tens did "get him" because the player with quad jacks was paid $20,000. It's good to lose, sometimes.