Are Poker Bad Beat Jackpots Worth It?

Everyone who will play poker online or live has a bad beat story and knows the pain you feel when a strong hand gets cracked. Luckily, there’s something called a bad beat jackpot that you can win which may soften the blow. You get it when you lose with a hand that, in almost any other situation, would scoop the pot.

• Bad Luck in Poker

---

What is a Bad Beat Jackpot in Poker?

---

A bad beat is when your awesome poker hand loses to a better hand. In practice, that means quads could lose to better quads, a full house can lose to quads, or a straight flush can lose to a royal flush. If that happens, the person who received the bad beat wins the lion’s share of the jackpot. The player that wins the hand also gets a cut of the prize pool, as do any other active players at the table. 

Both live and online poker rooms can have bad beat jackpots. A progressive jackpot that continually increases in size and is created through communal contributions. Basically, everyone playing at the table pays slightly more rake than at a standard table. This extra rake goes into the communal prize pool jackpot, which grows until someone wins it. 

Typically the jackpot payout is divided as follows:

• 50% to the player who LOST the bad beat hand.
• 25% to the player who WON the bad beat hand.
• 25% divided equally among the remaining players at the table dealt into the hand.

Although every room chooses its own rules for its bad beat jackpot, most stick to this:

• Live poker bad beat – Full house, aces full of tens upwards beaten by quads or better.
• Online poker bad beat – Quad eights (or better) beaten by a better hand

Obviously, the odds of winning the jackpot are much better live, with the more relaxed qualifications.

---

Poker Sites with Bad Beat Jackpots

---

Online bad beat jackpots are less common than they used to be. partypoker and Americas Cardroom both had a reputation for offering excellent ones in the past but discontinued them. 

GGPoker has a bad beat prize (see below for detail).

GGCare Bad Beats Promo – GGPoker

GGPoker’s promo team loves to innovate and that’s exactly what they did in January 2021. Taking the fundamental concept of bad beats but tweaking the definition and rewriting the script, the promo team came up with GGCare. 

The name is apt because it’s a demonstration of just how much GGPoker cares about its players. The main premise is similar in that if you get unlucky, you win a prize. However, unlike standard bad beat jackpots where you have to lose with quads, anyone can get something through GGCare. 

The definition of a “bad beat” is determined by GGPoker’s promo team. Basically, they’ll review your recent hand history and, if they spot something that seems unlucky or unfair, they’ll give you a prize. That prize is a ticket for a GGCare Flipout freeroll. So, if you’ve been coolered in a cash game or rivered in a tournament, GGCare could be there to help.

Flipout tournaments are great because you don’t have to do anything. Everyone goes all-in every hand until one player remains. Add to this the fact prize pools are worth up to $50,000 and it can actually pay to be unlucky at GGPoker.

---

Odds of a Bad Beat Jackpot

Let’s look at the quad tens vs. quad aces bad beat from above. In this hand, the flop ran out A 10 10 . At this point, pocket tens had a 95.56% chance of winning by the river. The odds shifted to 97.73% by the turn. 

Based on this example, you can see that it’s highly unlikely you’re going to lose with quad tens on the river. However, looking at the showdown percentages doesn’t tell the whole story. To fully appreciate the odds of winning a bad beat poker jackpot, you need to run millions of trials and consider many different variables.

For example, the odds of winning a poker bad beat jackpot will be shorter if the minimum hand is quad deuces compared to a situation where the minimum hand is quad eights. Add to this the odds of being dealt certain hands and actions such as players folding, and it becomes a minefield of numbers. However, as a general guide, the chances of losing with quads at a ten-handed table are 1 in 2,112,609.

Is it Worth it – Statistically?

Casinos take $1 from every pot to go toward the bad beat jackpot (this is on top of any rake). So, if your table is dealt exactly 42,391 hands, everyone will have collectively paid a total of $42,391 to the jackpot. Assuming every player paid an equal $4,231 to the jackpot total. The win/loss for the players are as follows:

• Player who lost the bad beat hand: won $21,195.50 – net gain $16,964.50
• Player who won the bad beat hand: won $10,597.75 – net gain $6,366.75
• Remaining 8 players: each won $1,324.71 for a net loss of $2,906.28

Two players made money, eight players lost money. This doesn’t take into account the casino taking a cut of the bad beat drop. Not only that, even if you sit for 42,391 hands, and don’t get dealt a bad beat after 42,390 hands, you still only have a 0.00002359% chance at hitting it on the next hand. (If that seems strange to you, read about the Gamblers Fallacy.)

---

Largest Bad Beat Jackpot in US History

---

Although the odds of losing with quads are long, there are so many hands of poker being dealt around the world, someone is always getting unlucky. With that being said, here are some of the biggest bad beat jackpots in history:

Motor City Casino: $1,068,590

A player called Scott from Michigan had quad threes beaten by quad queens at Motor City Casino in 2018. Thanks to a bad beat poker jackpot of more than $1 million, Scott took home $427,452, while the winner of the hand, Kenneth, banked $213,712. The other four players at the table each won $106,856, even though they folded!

---

Are Bad Beat Jackpots Bad?

---

Before you throw up your hands, remember one aspect to bad beat jackpots – when they’re large, the room is likely full of unskilled players hoping to get lucky. These are the players you want at your poker table. At these times, the money you make from these hopeful players should greatly outweigh the money you lose to the jackpot drop. Look at the bad beat jackpot as the cost of bait. You have to buy bait if you want to catch fish. 

Take the Guaranteed Money Over the Jackpot

A better solution is to play at tables without an additional bad beat rake. This is easier when you play online. Not only do many sites not even offer a bad beat jackpot, the ones that do offer you the choice of playing a jackpot table or a non-jackpot table.

Instead of hoping for a jackpot, take advantage of sign-up poker bonusesand poker promotions online. Not only will you receive a bonus shortly after you start playing, almost all online rooms also periodically offer reload bonuses to loyal players. If you want to roll the dice on a jackpot, the general sign-up bonus will make up for all the money you donate to the jackpot pool along the way. After all, even a long shot’s not a gamble if it’s free.