The spot of all the biggest jackpots in live poker — Playground Poker Club — had yet another massive bad beat jackpot hit with CAD $1,344,069 ($988,824 USD) being spread unevenly among those in the room after a straight flush cracked a weaker straight flush.
Playground, one of the top poker rooms in Canada, is notorious for its massive jackpots. Just two months ago, a $2.6 million bad beat jackpot hit at the card room, the largest in live poker history.
While the most recent one is only worth about half that pot, it is still a historic hand as it is among the biggest ones ever, and paid life-changing money.
Playground Poker Bad Beat Jackpot Hand Details
The lucky hand, which created life-changing money for two players, took place during a $1/$2 no-limit Texas hold’em cash game.
With eight players at the table, five players limped (or checked in the big blind) to see a flop of 7♦9♦4♥. Action checked to Seat 9, who bet $15. Guy Sanschagrin in Seat 2 called, as did Seat 5 and Siew Teh Haw in Seat 6.
The 8♦ appeared on the turn, allowing for the possibility of a bad beat jackpot hitting — two potential straight flushes. Playground Poker Club’s BBJ rules are a tad different than many other card rooms. Qualifying hands to pop the BBJ change weekly, and the current minimum qualifier is quad aces, meaning the jackpot won’t hit unless a player loses the hand with quad aces or better.
All four remaining players checked the turn, and it appeared in that spot the hand wasn’t headed for a massive pot. The river was the A♠ and Seat 5 checked, Teh Haw bet $40, Seat 9 folded, and then Sanschagrin moved all in. Everyone folded except Teh Haw, who snap-called with 6♦5♦ for a straight flush.
Despite holding a straight flush, Teh Haw actually lost the pot because his opponent flipped over J♦10♦ for a superior straight flush. But the player with the losing hand was the biggest winner in the hand as the bad beat jackpot paid the loser approximately CAD $530,000 (40% of the pot).
The winning hand received half of that amount (approximately $265,000), while another 20% of the pot was split evenly among the remaining six players at the table ($44,000 each), and the final 20% of the pot was chopped among the other players seated in cash games throughout the room.
The bad beat jackpot at Playground Poker Group has been reset to just over $140,000, and quad aces remain the minimum qualifying hand for it to pop.