Sites With The Best Bad Beat Jackpots
Nobody likes losing to a bad beat at the poker tables, that is, unless they are seated at a Bad Beat Jackpot table at the time. Bad Beat Jackpots take away the pain of losing in extremely unlikely circumstances by awarding massive cash prizes! Although more common in brick-and-mortar cardrooms, several online poker sites offer Bad Beat Jackpot, too.
What is a Bad Beat Jackpot?
A Bad Beat Jackpot is precisely how it sounds: a jackpot that is triggered when a serious enough bad beat occurs at the cash game tables. Some live and online poker rooms offer a bad beat jackpot, which is akin to taking out an insurance policy against bad beats.
The jackpot is usually funded by a small fee taken from qualifying cash game pots in addition to the rake. All the small amounts quickly add up and often result in hundreds of thousands of dollars being awarded once the criteria for triggering the bad beat jackpot are met. There is no guarantee that you will win the bad beat jackpot, but you are usually in for a substantial payday if you do win it.
How to Win a Poker Bad Beat Jackpot
The first step to winning a poker bad beat jackpot is to ensure you are playing cash games at a bad beat jackpot table. Online poker rooms offering a bad beat jackpot will often clearly mark the tables were jackpots can be won. In a live poker room, it is common to have all running tables eligible to trigger the jackpot.
Each online poker site and live poker room has different rules for paying the bad beat jackpot. For example, one poker room may require a player to lose with a hand as strong as four-of-a-kind queens or as weak as a full house aces-full of kings. More often than not, you must use both of your hole cards in a Hold'em game to win the jackpot.
What is the Payout Structure of a Bad Beat Jackpot?
Again, like the rules of triggering the bad beat jackpot, the payout structures differ between online poker sites and live poker rooms. As a general rule, the person who suffers the qualifying bad beat wins the largest share of the bad beat jackpot. The person who won the hand – caused the bad beat – also wins some of the jackpot, as does everyone else sat at the table that was dealt into the hand; you don't even have to be the winner or loser of the hand to win a bad beat jackpot, being sat at the table is often enough.
A typical bad beat payout structure may look something like this:
| Winner | Payout |
|---|---|
| Loser of the hand (BBJ winner) | 50% |
| Winner of the hand | 25% |
| Other players at the table | 10% |
| Other players playing at other BBJ tables | 5% |
| Seed for the next jackpot | 10% |
The Best Bad Beat Jackpot Poker Sites
Currently, only two online poker sites that PokerNews promotes offer a bad beat jackpot: GGPoker and TigerGaming. Both jackpots work to the same principles but have entirely different payout structures and rules, as you are about to discover.
GGPoker Bad Beat Jackpot
GGPoker is the biggest online poker room that offers a bad beat jackpot to its customers. GGPoker after changes the rules and payout structure of its bad beat jackpot to keep it interesting for players, usually by lowering the bad beat requirements and paying out more BBJ players.
How to Win the GGPoker Bad Beat Jackpot
GGPoker's latest version of the bad beat jackpot is called Bad Beat Rebirth, and it is designed to pay out more frequently due to allowing more hands to trigger the jackpot.
In Hold'em cash games, including Rush & Cash, you must lose with AAATT or Better. In Short Deck you must lose with four-of-a-kind sixes or better. Pot-Limit Omaha and Rish & Cash PLO players need to lose with four-of-a-kind deuces, while PLO5 grinders need to lose with quad eights to trigger the jackpot.
Both the winner and the loser must use both hole cards in Hold'em and two hole cards in PLO and PLO5, and the hand must go to showdown to trigger the jackpot.
What are the GGPoker Bad Beat Jackpot Payouts?
As it is easier to hit the jackpot at GGPoker, the payouts are less. The current payout table is as follows:
| Recipient | Prize |
|---|---|
| Bad beat winner (pot loser) | 10% |
| Bad beat opponent (pot winner) | 3% |
| Rest of players in the hand | 0.8% |
Sign Up to GGPoker Now and Win the Bad Beat Jackpot
Sign up for a free GGPoker account via PokerNews today, and you can grab yourself $50 worth of free tickets or a generous 100% up to $600 first deposit bonus. All you need to do then is sit at the bad beat jackpot tables and hope to be on the wrong side of a vicious bad beat!
TigerGaming Bad Beat Jackpot
TigerGaming has been the home of some of the biggest bad beat jackpots in online poker history, although its recently revamped payout structure is designed to pay less money but more frequently.
How to Win the TigerGaming Bad Beat Jackpot
The TigerGaming Bad Beat Jackpot is split into Texas Hold'em and Pot Limit Omaha and then split further into stakes of those two poker variants. In order to trigger the jackpot, Hold'em players must lose with AAAKK or better, while Omaha players' losing hand must be at least four-of-a-kind sixes.
What are the TigerGaming Bad Beat Jackpot Payouts
In its current form, the TigerGaming Bad Beat Jackpots pay a percentage of the jackpot to the loser of the hand, the winner of the hand, everyone dealt into the action on the table where the bad beat occurs, and everyone else playing at the same stakes on bad beat jackpot tables.
| Recipient | Payout |
|---|---|
| Bad beat winner (pot loser) | 20% |
| Bad beat opponent (pot winner) | 10% |
| Rest of players in the hand | 10% |
| Rest of players at the same stakes | 20% |
| Seed for next jackpot | 35% |
| House fee | 5% |
Sign Up to TigerGaming Now and Win the Bad Beat Jackpot
Download TigerGaming via PokerNews today, and you will be entitled to a 100% up to $1,000 welcome bonus on your first deposit. Make your deposit, claim your bonus following the instructions in our TigerGaming review, then hope you make a qualifying hand at the bad beat jackpot tables.
Bad Beat Jackpot FAQs
What is the biggest bad beat jackpot in history?
The largest ever bad beat jackpot happened at the Playground Poker Club in Canada in August 2023. It paid out a staggering CAD $2,590,185 ($1.9 million USD)
What is an example of a bad beat jackpot?
bad beats happen all the time but they need to be nasty to trigger a bad beat jackpot. Typically, a player must lose with a very strong hand like aces-full-of-kings or four of a kind.
How do you hit a bad beat jackpot?
Hitting the bad beat jackpot is as simple as sitting on a qualifying table and then losing with one of the hands strong enough to qualify for the jackpot. Each poker room and online poker site has different rules.
What poker sites have bad beat jackpots?
GGPoker and TigerGaming are the two online poker sites that PokerNews recommends if you want to chase down a bad beat jackpot.
What are bad beat jackpot rules?
Every poker room and online poker site has different rules regarding bad beat jackpots, so it is important to fully understand their terms and conditions before you sit down at one of their bad beat jackpot tables.