How to Win by Losing

In poker rooms they’ve invented something called a “Bad Beat Jackpot.” In order to win a Bad Beat Jackpot, you need to lose a game of poker with what would usually be a winning hand. The minimum hand needed to receive the Bad Beat Jackpot varies by casino. A usual minimum hand is four of a kind. Ironically, you’re usually better off losing with a good hand and winning the Bad Beat Jackpot than you are winning the hand.

Las Vegas Station casinos have taken the bad-beat jackpots to a new level, introducing Station’s Super Bad Beat Progressive, which links the company’s three Las Vegas casino resorts. Beginning with an initial jackpot of $50,000, poker players will have a shot at the jackpot. Not only will the person losing the hand with a qualified “bad beat” get paid, but everyone playing poker in any of the three casinos will also get a cut: 40 percent goes to the losing hand, 20 percent to the winning hand, 10 percent to the other players at the table, and 30 percent to the rest of the players in the three casinos.