Bad Beat Poker Rules

In poker, bad beat is a subjective term for a hand in which a player with what appear to be strong cards nevertheless loses. It most often occurs where one player bets the clearly stronger hand and their opponent makes a mathematically poor call that wins with any subequent dealing to complete the hand.

In pure mathematical terms a one-outer can be considered a pure bad beat, however there is no consensus however among poker players as to what else exactly constitutes a bad beat and often players will disagree about whether a particular hand was a bad beat. A few examples are: quads over full house, quads over quads, straight flush over quads, small full house vs. bigger full house or better.

Types of bad beats[edit]

Any hand that looked like a favorite to win can end up losing as more cards are dealt (with the nuts being the exception), but bad beats usually involve one of two not mutually exclusive scenarios:

  1. THE “BAD BEAT” JACKPOT IS FOR ALL CONTRIBUTING TEXAS HOLD‘EM POKER GAMES. TO QUALIFY FOR THE BAD BEAT JACKPOT, A PLAYER WITH FOUR TWOS (2’S) MUST BE BEATEN.
  2. A “bad beat” is the name given to an occurence in poker where a markedly worse hand beats a better one, through fortune alone. The person suffering the “bad beat” plays the hand correctly, gets their money into the pot when they were a long way ahead, but is still beaten by the turn of a card beyond the player’s control.
  3. Bad Beat Official Rules Effective May 12, 2011. Property Specific Poker Room Rules will apply where applicable. T he JACKPOT rake is the amount taken from every eligible poker game pot to fund the Bad Beat Jackpot and is separate from and in addition to the House rake.

Jackpots are rather complicated promotions. Does the casino give out the bad beat jackpot at a set amount or do they collect from rake to build the jackpot? Generally speaking operators of a poker game will take a drop that is separate from the rake to fund promotions. From this promotion fund they will fund a bad beat Jackpot. Bad Beat Jackpot. Participation / Qualification: To qualify for the BBJ the BBJ is only available on specially designated tables available under the 'Cash Game' tab. 2 or more players must be dealt into the hand. Players sitting out do not qualify for the jackpot. Players which folded without paying blinds do.

  • The player who wins on a bad beat is rewarded for mathematically unsound play. Calling a bet despite having neither the best hand nor the right pot odds or implied odds to call, then winning anyway, is characteristic of this type of bad beat. It can also involve the inferior hand catching running cards when it requires two cards in a row to come from behind to win the pot. For example, catching cards on both the turn and the river in Texas hold 'em that complete a straight or flush.
  • A very strong hand loses to an even stronger one, better known as 'cooler'. This type of beat occurs with some frequency in movies. In the films The Cincinnati Kid and Casino Royale, The Kid and Le Chiffre each lose with a full house to a straight flush. In this situation, it is possible that both players have played their cards well, and avoiding the bad beat could not have been achieved without committing a mistake.

Reacting to bad beats[edit]

Poker

A bad beat can be a profound psychological blow, and can easily lead to a player going on tilt. Professional player Phil Hellmuth, among others, is notorious for his pronounced reactions to bad beats. However, suffering a bad beat means that the losing player was 'getting the money in good' and in most instances would win by playing the same hand the same way. Thus, the more stoic poker players accept bad beats as an unpleasant but necessary drawback to a tactic that works the vast majority of the time.

Bad beats online[edit]

In online poker rooms, bad beats often lead to accusations that the random number generator is 'rigged', even though such beats also occur in offline games. Many online poker rooms post statistical data to demonstrate the randomness of the hands generated.[1] In online poker games players have an opportunity to play in 'bad beat' tables where the player who has the best losing hand receives an accumulated prize pool. An additional amount of rake is taken from each hand to fund the jackpot. The largest online jackpot to date was €1.25 million, hit in July 2011 with €443,000 going to the loser of the hand.[2]

Players are statistically more likely to experience bad beats online, since playing using a computer allows for more hands played per hour. Also, online players may play multiple cash game tables and/or tournaments at the same time, also increasing the frequency of hands dealt.Also, tells are rendered moot, so players are incapable of reading clues such as body language in aid of deriving the strength of an opponent's hand.Finally, online poker games (especially freeroll tournaments) are far more accessible to the average player who, being average, is less likely to be knowledgeable regarding the techniques of the game, in turn making it more likely they will bet from the gut or intuition rather than experience.

Bad beat jackpot[edit]

A bad beat jackpot is a prize that is paid when a sufficiently strong hand is shown down and loses to an even stronger hand held by another player.[3] Not all poker games offer bad beat jackpots, and those that do have specific requirements for how strong a losing hand must be to qualify for the jackpot. For example, the losing hand may be required to be four-of-a-kind or better. There may be additional requirements as well. For example, in Texas hold 'em there is usually a requirement that both hole cards play in both the losing and winning hands, or that where a full house is the minimum (usually aces full of jacks or higher), both hole cards must be used to make the three-of-a-kind in the full house.

Bad beat jackpots are usually progressive, often with a small rake being taken out of each pot to fund the jackpot (in addition to the regular rake). When a jackpot is won, it is usually split among all players sitting at the table at the time of the bad beat with the losing hand getting the largest share, followed by the winning hand, and all the other players dividing the remainder. Generally, only the best losing hand is eligible to win the largest share, even if another hand would also qualify.

Specific rules, collections, payout percentages, and amounts vary greatly from one casino or cardroom to the next, and are sometimes changed.

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^PokerStars: Random Number Generator Audits
  2. ^Boss Media's Bad Beat Jackpot is Finally Hit
  3. ^'Commerce Casino: Jackpots'. Archived from the original on 2006-08-20. Retrieved 2006-08-20.

Books[edit]

  • Bad Beats and Lucky Draws by Phil Hellmuth ISBN0-06-074083-3
  • Poker: Bets, Bluffs, And Bad Beats by A. Alvarez ISBN0-8118-4627-X
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bad_beat&oldid=971418456'

Thread Rating:

brianparkes
Hey Wizard (or anyone),
What is your analysis of the side bet on Four Card Poker called the Bad Beat wager?
It is paid when the player's hand and the dealer's hand are of a value of at least 2 Pair. The player's hand does not have to be higher than the dealer's.
Exampes: Player 2 Pair, Dealer Trips = Bad Beat wager paid for 2 Pair value. Player Flush, Dealer Trips = Bad Beat wager paid for Trips value.
The payouts are:
2 Pair = 4:1
Straight = 6:1
Flush = 25:1
Trips = 100:1
Straight Flush = 10,000:1
4 of a Kind = 25,000:1
The game rules list that the hit frequency is 5.6% and the house edge is 20.3%. Is this correct, especially if you are playing multiple hands at once? Since the dealer is essentially playing 6 card stud (even though only 4 of the cards play), and on your charts on wizardofodds.com, it looks like the dealer should have 2 pair or higher about 20% of the time. I know the hit frequency for a player to get the Aces Up wager (pair of aces or higher) is 18.56%, so the hit frequency for the 2 pair or higher will be slightly less since a pair of Aces do not qualify for the Bad Beat wager.
I've seen a player get paid for the Trips Bad Beat wager 100:1 playing 4 spots quite often. Due to the high payouts, is Shufflemaster's estimation of a house edge of 20% and a hit rate of 5.6% accurate? How would you calculate the hit % if you are playing multiple spots? If the dealer will hit 2 Pair or higher 20% of the time, do the high payout rates make it worth playing if you are playing multiple spots?
Please post if you create an analysis of this on the Four Card Poker section on wizardofodds.com. Thanks for all the great information.
brianparkes
Forgot to post this part: I know the Straight Flush and 4 of a Kind hands will happen very rarely, but what about the Trips over at least Trips wager? Can you expect to get that hand more than 1 in 100 combinations? That is the hand situation that seems to happen often enough with the 100:1 payout odds that seems to hit frequently enough to make me question that the payout amount is high for the frequency of times it will occur.
TheBigPaybak

Forgot to post this part: I know the Straight Flush and 4 of a Kind hands will happen very rarely, but what about the Trips over at least Trips wager? Can you expect to get that hand more than 1 in 100 combinations? That is the hand situation that seems to happen often enough with the 100:1 payout odds that seems to hit frequently enough to make me question that the payout amount is high for the frequency of times it will occur.


It sounds like the bad-beats are based on 5-card straights and flushes, correct?
Lack of prior planning on your part doesn't constitute an emergency on my part.
Bad
DJTeddyBear

Straight = 6:1
Flush = 25:1

These should be almost equal.
The fact is, in 4CP, flushes are slightly MORE common than straights, so they should pay LESS than a straight. But since the Aces Up bet pays more for the flush, this should also pay slightly more for a flush. But your numbers are out of whack.
I invented a few casino games. Info: http://www.DaveMillerGaming.com/ ————————————————————————————————————— Superstitions are silly, childish, irrational rituals, born out of fear of the unknown. But how much does it cost to knock on wood? 😁
brianparkes
The results are based only on the 4 cards that actually play for the player and the dealer.
brianparkes
The odds listed are for the Bad Beat wager only, not part of the Aces Up wagers. I only referenced the Aces Up wager because it is listed to hit around 18% of the time (so excluding the pair of aces, the other 2 pair hands and higher will happen almost as frequently for reference to how often you might be eligible for the Bad Beat wager as long as the dealer has at least 2 Pair).
brianparkes
The full game rules approved for this state (WA) is on page 10 of this link: http://www.wsgc.wa.gov/docs/game_rules/four_card_poker_bbb_progressive.pdf
if you want to reference it

Bad Beat Poker Rules

TheBigPaybak


Exampes: Player 2 Pair, Dealer Trips = Bad Beat wager paid for 2 Pair value. Player Flush, Dealer Trips = Bad Beat wager paid for Trips value.


Isn't the last example wrong, then? If the player has a flush and the dealer has trips, then the bad-beat should be paid for Flush value, as a Flush is less than Trips in 4-card?
Lack of prior planning on your part doesn't constitute an emergency on my part.
brianparkes

Poker Bad Beat Jackpot Rules

Poker
The bad beat pays for the lowest of the two hands, but it does not matter who is holding it (the player or the dealer). All that matters is that both have at least 2 pair.

Bad Beat Poker Room Rules

brianparkes

Poker Bad Beat Jackpot Rules

Now I see the confusion, I put the pay table down wrong. My Bad
2 Pair = 4:1
Straight = 15:1
Flush = 25:1
Trips = 100:1
St. Flush = 10000:1
Quads = 25000:1
Looking at the wrong chart, sorry.
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