Caesars Entertainment paid out nearly $800,000 to 411 poker players across five casinos on Monday, the largest bad beat jackpot since the concept was first introduced in Atlantic City two years ago, officials said.
“Record-setting jackpots were made to be won,” Don Marrandino, Caesars’ eastern division president said in a statement.
Bad beat jackpots are a concept casinos developed to pay out a prize anytime a strong hand loses to an even stronger hand held by another player — often considered a dramatic moment in a poker game.
In this case, Narong Sae Whited, of Shelton, Wash., was playing in the Caesars poker room on Monday when he put out what he thought would be a winning hand — four nines.
But then he was outdone when Nick Angelakopoulos, of Atlantic City, spread out his king-high straight flush.
At some casinos, the bad-beat jackpot, which is funded by $1 taken out of each pot, only goes to the losing and winning players, and in some cases, to all of the players at the table.
Caesars, which operates several casinos in Atlantic City, divided the jackpot among every gambler playing in one of the poker rooms in Caesars, Harrah’s Resort, Bally’s and Showboat at the time Angelakopoulos won.
Whited took home $237,154 for his “bad beat” while Angelakopoulos took home $158,422 and the rest was evenly split among the other 409 players — each receiving a $958 payout, according to Caesars.
Following the win, the jackpot was reset and already had climbed to about $400,000 as of Tuesday, company representatives said.
Caesars’ rules say that once the jackpot is reset, the minimum losing bad-beat hand starts at four kings. Until the jackpot is hit, the minimum losing hand is then lowered every other week by one four of a kind ranking until it reaches four deuces.
The multicasino Texas Hold’em Poker Room Bad Beat Jackpot was introduced by Caesars in 2010 with a starting jackpot of $524,045.
Contact Hoa Nguyen:
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