Bad Beat Monthly: A Look at Some Rough December Poker Outcomes
In poker, a “bad beat” refers to a situation where a player with a seemingly strong hand loses to an opponent with a weaker hand that sucks out in an unlikely fashion.
Bad beats can be frustrating for players, but they are a natural part of the game. These turns of bad luck can happen to anyone, but can also be fascinating to observe.
USPoker will now highlight some of the bad beats on the poker felt that stood out each month. Here’s a look at some of the action from December.
♠♠♠ Bad Beat Monthly offers a recap and highlights some bad hands at the poker tables. If you have a screenshot or video of a bad beat, please tag @USPoker on Twitter each month to be highlighted in Bad Beat Monthly. ♠♠♠
Negreanu’s boat over boat to bust WPT World Championship
One nasty bad beat happened to none other than Kid Poker himself at the recent World Poker Tour World Championship at the Wynn in Las Vegas. Daniel Negreanu suffered a particularly painful turn of the cards.
In the running for the $4.1 million first-place prize, Negreanu was up against Lucas Foster with only 17 players left in the field of 2,930.
Negreanu raised on the button to 800,000 with the blinds at 200,000/400,000 and a 400,000 big blind ante. Foster three-bet to 2.3 million from the big blind.
Negreanu called with pocket twos and they saw a flop of 10-4-2 with two clubs. Foster bet 2.5 million and Negreanu called. A 10 was dealt on the turn, giving Negreanu a full house.
Foster had pocket Kings and Negreanu was a 9-to-1 favorite to double up when all the chips were in the middle. But the river brought Foster a King, giving him a better full house and the winning hand. Negreanu finished 17th for $176,200, but hoped for much more.
The Lodge offers a bad beat on stream
The Lodge card club in Texas highlighted a bad beat last month that players won’t forget anytime soon. A player on the stream named “J-Lo” flopped a set of sixes versus Darin Campos‘ set of fives.
The flop brought 4-5-6 with two spades on deck. The board then ran runner-runner spades on the turn and river to give Campos the flush with his 5♠. Campos scooped a cash pot of $7,220 for the suck out.
PokerStars sees Aces cracked online
Bad beats certainly happen in the world of online poker as well. Just a few days before Christmas, Bill Grzyb thought he flopped some magic. But unfortunately a Grinch was lurking to steal his glory.
With just four players left in PokerStars New Jersey’s Big 30 tournament, Gryzb got it all in with pocket Aces. He flopped a set and then rivered a boat when the board paired 10s.
Unfortunately fellow Garden State grinder “Troutray” went runner-runner to hit quad 10s. Gryzb was a good sport about the ordeal and laughed it off on Twitter.
US bad beat jackpot tracker
The bad beat jackpot is a popular promotion offered by many casino poker rooms. A certain amount is taken from each cash game hand to fund the jackpot.
When a premium hand such as quads is beaten by an even higher hand, the progressive jackpot is triggered for what can be a massive payday.
This generally awards the loser of the hand a huge portion of the jackpot. The winner also usually gets a big chunk with the rest of the table usually getting a nice portion of the action as well. Here are some current top bad beat jackpots from across the country as of Dec. 27:
- MGM Grand (Detroit Michigan) – $389,00
- Mohegan Sun (Uncasville, Connecticut) – $319,703
- Rivers Casino (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) – $281,379
- Santa Fe Station (Las Vegas) – $258,237
- Parx Casino (Bensalem, Pennsylvania) – $197,832
- Foxwoods Casino (Connecticut) – $129,342
- Mohegan Sun (Poconos, Pennsylvania) – $113,765
The biggest bad beat in history took place on Aug. 28 at Rivers Casino Pittsburgh for $1.2 million.