Sands Poker Bad Beat Jackpot
Introduction
'Bad beat' is a term that can mean having an outstanding chance of winning a bet, only to still lose. The term can be used in any form of gambling but is most commonly applied to poker. Many poker rooms offer a progressive jackpot for very unlikely bad beats. Various other rules are added to ensure that only surprising bad beats win. Below I present tables of bad beat probabilities, starting with the most liberal rules, and ending with the most stringent. The most stringent rules, the 'Bad Beat Type 3', are the most common, in my experience.
Following are the rules for a type 1 bad beat.
A Bad Beat Jackpot is a progressive type of jackpot that is often attached to one specific poker game, the idea behind this jackpot is that if one of the strongest poker hands available gets beaten by an even stronger one such as four Aces getting beaten by a Royal Flush at a live poker table, then the player who lost out to the Royal Flush hand, and occasionally every other players involved in that hand picks up a share of the Bad Beat Jackpot.
- The poker Bad Beat jackpot (progressive jackpot) rewards unlucky players. Losing has never been so profitable!
- The probability of hitting a bad beat jackpot is 0.000064% for each hand that qualifies under the conditions above given that you are the player losing with a 4 of a kind, 8s or higher. 4 of a kind, 8s or higher must be beaten to qualify for this promotion.
- The contribution will only be taken from Bad Beat Jackpot tables. The Bad Beat is only available on hands where 4 or more players are dealt into the hand. The hand must rake a total of 1 big blind to qualify. Both hole cards must be included in the Bad beat hand, as well as in the winning hand. The Bad Beat Jackpot will be divided among the.
- Both the bad beat and winning hand must be the best possible combination of five cards. In cases where the same hand can be created multiple ways (for example player has AK and the board shows AAKKQ) the player's hole cards will take priority.
- Both the bad beat and winning hand must make use of both hole cards.
- A full house must be beaten by a four of a kind or higher.
The rules for a type 2 bad beat are the same as type 1, plus any four of a kind, whether the bad beat hand or winning hand, must contain a pocket pair.
The rules for a type 3 bad beat are the same as type 2, plus a full house may not make use of a three of a kind entirely on the board.
In my experience, is the most common format for bad beat rules is type 3. The additional rule for type 3 makes very little difference, compared to type 2.
The following table shows the probability of each bad beat hand under all three types of rules. The table is based on a ten-player game in which nobody ever folds. The probabilities are for any pair of players meeting the qualifying rules. If you want to know YOUR probability of winning, you should divide the probability in the table by 10.
Bad Beat Probabilities
| Bad Beat Hand | Type 1 | Type 2 | Type 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Any full house | 0.00203329 | 0.00050305 | 0.00049508 |
| Full house, three 3's or higher | 0.00189512 | 0.00046978 | 0.00046204 |
| Full house, three 4's or higher | 0.00175159 | 0.00043444 | 0.00042728 |
| Full house, three 5's or higher | 0.00160333 | 0.00039706 | 0.00039028 |
| Full house, three 6's or higher | 0.00144965 | 0.00035741 | 0.00035145 |
| Full house, three 7's or higher | 0.0012936 | 0.00031767 | 0.00031266 |
| Full house, three 8's or higher | 0.00113492 | 0.00027775 | 0.00027355 |
| Full house, three 9's or higher | 0.00097379 | 0.00023772 | 0.00023445 |
| Full house, three T's or higher | 0.00081113 | 0.00019759 | 0.00019503 |
| Full house, three J's or higher | 0.00064763 | 0.00015708 | 0.00015509 |
| Full house, three Q's or higher | 0.00048533 | 0.00011838 | 0.00011682 |
| Full house, three K's or higher | 0.00032561 | 0.00008130 | 0.00008033 |
| Full house, three A's or higher | 0.00016964 | 0.00004608 | 0.00004579 |
| Full house, aces full of 3's or higher | 0.00016004 | 0.00004350 | 0.00004322 |
| Full house, aces full of 4's or higher | 0.00014986 | 0.00004080 | 0.00004052 |
| Full house, aces full of 5's or higher | 0.00013898 | 0.00003797 | 0.00003763 |
| Full house, aces full of 6's or higher | 0.00012749 | 0.00003504 | 0.00003469 |
| Full house, aces full of 7's or higher | 0.00011580 | 0.00003233 | 0.00003203 |
| Full house, aces full of 8's or higher | 0.00010347 | 0.00002957 | 0.00002925 |
| Full house, aces full of 9's or higher | 0.00009067 | 0.00002673 | 0.00002645 |
| Full house, aces full of T's or higher | 0.00007714 | 0.00002383 | 0.00002359 |
| Full house, aces full of J's or higher | 0.00006286 | 0.00002064 | 0.0000204 |
| Full house, aces full of Q's or higher | 0.00004793 | 0.00001738 | 0.00001721 |
| Full house, aces full of K's or higher | 0.00003230 | 0.00001408 | 0.00001402 |
| Any four of a kind | 0.00001601 | 0.00001086 | 0.00001081 |
| Four 3's or higher | 0.00001437 | 0.00000996 | 0.00000992 |
| Four 4's or higher | 0.0000127 | 0.00000900 | 0.00000902 |
| Four 5's or higher | 0.00001099 | 0.00000805 | 0.00000804 |
| Four 6's or higher | 0.00000934 | 0.00000705 | 0.00000707 |
| Four 7's or higher | 0.0000078 | 0.00000613 | 0.00000611 |
| Four 8's or higher | 0.0000064 | 0.00000525 | 0.00000519 |
| Four 9's or higher | 0.00000519 | 0.00000439 | 0.00000435 |
| Four T's or higher | 0.00000414 | 0.00000359 | 0.00000357 |
| Four J's or higher | 0.00000317 | 0.00000287 | 0.00000285 |
| Four Q's or higher | 0.00000246 | 0.00000226 | 0.00000224 |
| Four K's or higher | 0.00000193 | 0.00000180 | 0.00000179 |
| Four A's or higher | 0.00000157 | 0.00000149 | 0.00000147 |
| Any straight flush | 0.0000012 | 0.00000122 | 0.00000121 |
| Straight flush 6 high or higher | 0.00000105 | 0.00000107 | 0.00000105 |
| Straight flush 7 high or higher | 0.00000089 | 0.00000091 | 0.00000090 |
| Straight flush 8 high or higher | 0.00000073 | 0.00000074 | 0.00000074 |
| Straight flush 9 high or higher | 0.00000056 | 0.00000059 | 0.00000058 |
| Straight flush T high or higher | 0.00000041 | 0.00000043 | 0.00000042 |
| Straight flush J high or higher | 0.00000028 | 0.00000027 | 0.00000027 |
| Straight flush Q high or higher | 0.00000012 | 0.00000012 | 0.00000012 |
Methodology
The above tables are the result of random simulations of about 2.5 billion rounds each.
Further Reading
The video poker variant World Series of Poker - Final Table Bonus features a bad beat jackpot. See my section on that game for more information.
Brian Alspach has a very good page on Texas Hold'em, including a section on the Bad Beat Jackpot at Party Poker.
Written by: Michael Shackleford
The Bad Beat Jackpot Finder
We are the only tracker of live Bad Beat Jackpots for online poker sites. The featured jackpots are shown below along with their requirements and reviews of winning. Each Bad Beat Jackpot is different for each site so we recommend you read the basics for each site so you don’t miss out. We’ve seen people lose a 6 figure jackpot over 5 cents! Please hit refresh to see the current poker jackpots amount.
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BetOnline Alternative Poker RoomOnline poker room, BetOnline, has temporarily shutdown. Fortunately, it should be re-opening again very soon, hopefully within 3 days at the latest/April 20th. Apparently BetOnline is upgrading their poker site which should provide for a better overall experience for their players.
Our Visitors Have Hit
So far that we know of two players that have visited our site have hit these bad beat jackpots. We got word that two players hit a jackpot on the same day, one winning $128,000 and another person from here was sitting at the same table and won $18,000. The main winner won $258,000 for his quad fours getting beat by quad sevens. Those are two unlucky lucky guys! This was one of the biggest jackpots that we know of that our players have hit, but there surely have been more, and they do happen on a daily basis!
Not Just Playing Online
Bad beat jackpots have been becoming more and more popular at live based 'brick and mortar' casinos. If you navigate our site you'll find our expanding section of casinos that have bad beat pots. The rules tend to change quite a bit for these jackpots so it's always good to ask the dealers what the requirements are.
A Couple Quick Tips
Right now, I'd have to say if you're going to play online, do so at BetOnline.ag. They have a large player database so the bad beat jackpot is constantly rising and falling. Of course, you want to play when it's peaking. BetOnline is also a poker site accepted from the US. There's really no point in playing in my opinion if the jackpot is low because we pretty much always have one site listed where the jackpot is over $100,000.
Sands Poker Bad Beat Jackpots
PokerStars or Full Tilt Jackpots
Because these two sites have the most players of any sites out there combined (even though they don't accept USA players), there is a real possibility for some mega jackpots to happen. It is something we've talked to Pokerstars and Full Tilt about having but at this time they are not adding any poker jackpot tables. Despite this, we still see demand because the jackpots could get into the 10,000,000 range if done properly, along with daily $1,000,000 jackpots. It is our intention to stay on top of these two sites to bring you the mega jackpots. Anyways, for now good luck on getting unlucky!