River Casino in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia saw a record $1.2m jackpot amassed in its Bad Beat poker game, with the highest-earning player gaining $490,708 of the total pot. The next highest winner received a payout of $368,029, while the remaining six players each won $61,338.
The highest earning player lost what was described as a ‘hand of a lifetime’, where he had four aces beaten by a royal flush. The chance of getting a royal flush is one in 2,598,960 times while four-of-a-kind occurs one in 4,165 times, making both these hands being made in the same round extremely improbable.
This showcase game happened in a $1-3 game of no-limit Texas hold 'em, with Benjamin Flannagan of Huttonsville, West Virginia gaining the top prize. Raymond Brodersen of Wexford, Pennsylvania held the elusive royal flush – an ace, king, queen, jack and ten of spades – that beat the winner in the game’s most exciting round of betting.
Rivers Casino assistant general manager Andre Barnabei commented: “It’s thrilling and potentially life-changing for a poker game to payout at this level. When we launch a Bad Beat jackpot, we have no idea when it will hit or how big it will get. It’s as exciting for us as it is for the winners.”
A ‘bad beat’ in poker occurs when a rare high-ranking hand is beaten by an even higher-ranking hand, usually on the reveal of the fourth card (the turn) or the fifth card (the river). In this Bad Beat variant of hold’em, the losing hand triggers the bad beat jackpot and wins the lion’s share of the money – 40% of the total. The ‘winner’ of the bad beat hand meanwhile earns 30% of the total jackpot.
Rivers Casino Pittsburgh’s previous Bad Beat jackpot record was for more than $480,000 in 2017.
