The jackpots come in three flavors: bad beat jackpots (usually the largest prizes, but with the longest odds), royal flush jackpots, and high hand awards. Here we'll give a rundown of how the jackpots work, the odds of actually hitting the big score, and where to find each kind of jackpot.
Bad Beat Jackpots - To hit a bad beat jackpot you'll need to lose with a really great hand. In local card rooms, typically the jackpot is awarded when one player holds a full house (aces full of jacks, or a better hand) and another player wins the pot with at least four of a kind. The player with the losing hand would receive 50% of the jackpot, the winner gets 25%, and the other players at the table split the remaining 25%. The rules may vary for different poker rooms and for games other than Texas Hold'em. For example, at Mardi Gras Gaming, the Omaha bad beat jackpot requires quad jacks as the minimum qualifying hand.
Progressive jackpots are funded by an additional rake (typically $1 is taken and put into the jackpot pool when the pot reaches $10). Due to the long odds, under this system the jackpots can grow quite large (usually in the tens of thousands of dollars, and sometimes over $100,000).
There are also non-progressive bad beat awards at some card rooms where the prize amount is fixed by the house and no extra rake is taken from the pot. These awards are much less than the player-contributed jackpots.
Bad Beat Jackpot Odds: According to a simulation run by the Wizard of Odds (website), the odds of hitting a progressive bad beat jackpot with typical rules would be, at best, 1 in 48,000 hands.
Royal Flush Jackpots - To win, all you need to do is hit a royal flush (using both of your hole cards). These jackpots also come in two varieties: progressive jackpots and non-progressive awards.
Odds of Hitting a Royal Flush: 1 in 649,740.
High Hand Awards - Whoever has the highest hand in the card room during a set time period wins a fixed amount. For example, Dania Jai-Alai awards $200 for the high hand during a two hour period twice daily, and the Seminole Hard Rock awards $1000 for the high hand during during one hour time slots (11AM-7PM) Sunday through Thursday.
High Hand Award Odds: largely determined by the number of players in the room.
Where to play for the jackpots:
Dania Jai-Alai
- Progressive Royal Flush Jackpots (Hearts RF Jackpot was $12,398 on May 8th).
- $200 High Hand awards (2 hours, twice daily).
Flagler Dog Track
- Royal Flush jackpots
The Isle at Pompano
- $100 Royal Flush awards.
Seminole Hard Rock
- Bad Beat Jackpots (Texas Hold'Em Jackpot was $52,377 on May 7th, 2008).
- $1000 High Hand awards (hourly Sunday through Thursday from 11AM to 7PM).
Seminole Hollywood Casino
- $1000 Royal Flush awards (monday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday).
- $1000 Bad beat awards (aces full fo 8s beaten, Mon-Thurs).
Mardi Gras Gaming
- Bad Beat Jackpots (Texas Hold'Em Jackpot was $35,375 on May 8th, 2008).
- $599 Royal Flush Jackpot.
