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Vegas Bad Beat Jackpot Missed Over $2 Bet

Three-time WSOP bracelet winner Miami John Cernuto shared one of the most incredulous stories on Twitter Sunday. Apparently, a Bad beat jackpot was missed Sunday night at the Orleans Casino in Las Vegas because a player refused to bet a hand despite having quad aces.

The jackpot at the time was $78,000, and the details of the story make one wonder what the player was thinking.

Player Refuses to Bet Quads – Nullified Bad Beat Jackpot

Miami John Cernuto took to Twitter on Sunday to report on the crazy tale that went down in a $4-$8 Limit Hold’em game at the Orleans. According to the story, a player made quad aces and refused to bet the hand. He even told the player that he had quad aces.

By the time the hand went to showdown, another player had made a Royal Flush. Normally, this would result in triggering the Bad Beat Jackpot worth $78,000 at the time. Unfortunately, by the time hands went to showdown, there was only $8 in the pot.

The jackpot had a minimum pot requirement of $10. The bad beat jackpot was missed over $2.

Just witnessed the worst dumbest craziest jackpot story. For $78000 in a 4-8 limit holdem game, would you think a guy with AA who made AAAA and got beaten by a royal could get $10 into the pot. Nope! Disqualified cuz the pot was $8.

— John Cernuto (@MiamiJohnC) May 7, 2018

Late Monday night, Miami John followed up on his post letting players know that players would have been disqualified from the jackpot because the player revealed his hand.

Just a follow up to the bad beat jackpot at the Orleans last night .Even if the pot had gotten up to $10, they would still have been disqualified. During the hand the player with quad aces stated that he had 4 aces and wasn’t betting. Its like a scene out of Dumb and Dumber.

— John Cernuto (@MiamiJohnC) May 8, 2018

This situation is similar to a situation that happened in late 2017 at the Red Rock Casino. A player acted out of turn on the river and the casino attempted to invalidate the jackpot. The players appealed to the Nevada Gaming Control Board and the GCB determined that the player acting out of turn did not influence the action in a significant way and forced the casino to pay the jackpot.

That wasn’t the case in the scenario from this weekend. The player told players that he had quad aces and refused to bet his hand. This constituted discussion amongst players and invalidated the jackpot. There was no way that it would have been awarded even if the pot was above $10.

What Are Bad Beat Jackpots?

Bad beat jackpots are special promotions held by poker rooms to encourage action in cash games. The jackpot grows after each hand via a special drop taken during each hand, often this is about $1 per pot in most casinos.

The rules are simple, a particular qualifying hand must lose to a better hand in order to trigger the jackpot. On average, the bad beat is triggered when quads or better lose. In a few rare cases, you might see something like Aces Full trigger a bad beat when it loses to quads or better.

The jackpot is divided between all players at the table. The loser of the hand gets 50% of the jackpot with the winner of the hand getting 25%. The remaining 25% is divided between the other players at the table.

Bad beat jackpots typically have extensive rules governing the promotion. For example, the pot must meet a particular minimum and the players may not influence the action in any way. The player mentioning that he had quad aces automatically disqualified the bad beat jackpot.

In the situation above, the player with quad aces cost himself $39,000. The winner ended up losing out on $19,500 and the remaining players at the table missed out on $2,785.

Sunday’s scenario is one of the craziest non-wins that we’ve heard in recent memory and makes one wonder why the player would take such an action. Did they simply not care about winning? Was the player a “prop player?” Props are players hired by casinos to influence action.

Regardless of the reason, this will go down in poker lore as one of the biggest boneheaded moves ever.

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