A bad beat in poker is when you have a good hand that is a favorite to win but it is beaten by another hand. Most of the time it is a hand that caught a miracle draw on the river and the player should not have been playing it to begin with. A true bad beat is when two strong hands go head to head. Some poker rooms offer a jackpot bonus for this type of bad beat. Some players love to play in poker rooms that offer bad beat jackpots because the jackpot can grow to thousands of dollars before it is hit. I read that the largest bad beat jackpot was around $165,000, although many poker rooms will set a top amount for the jackpot, such as $50,000. Any money collected over this amount will be applied to a secondary back-up jackpot, which will be the amount of the new jackpot when the present one hits.

Bad beat jackpots are made from additional money raked out of each pot that goes toward the jackpot bonus. In most card rooms, these go into a separate drop box from the regular rake. Usually the jackpot rake is one dollar, but it is not taken out of small pots or hands that do not see the flop.

Some poker rooms just combine the money in a single box with the rake, and then take a percentage out at the end of the day. There are other card rooms that fully fund that jackpot without taking extra out of each hand. In these instances there are usually other rules, such as the jackpot can only be hit during the week and not on weekends.

At first thought, playing in a poker room that offers a bad beat jackpot may be exciting but you have to realize that the chances of hitting one are very slim. Since they are taking money out of each pot, the rake is much higher than in rooms that do not have a bad beat jackpot. Many low limit players find it hard to overcome the rake and the tip in order to make a profit, and the extra taken out for the jackpot will decrease the profit on each hand you win.

When the jackpot is hit, the money is divided between the winning and losing player and the other players at the table. Each poker room may distribute the jackpot money differently but an example would be: 50% to the losing hand, 25% to the winning hand and 25% to the remaining players at the table that were dealt-in that hand.

In some poker rooms, a portion of the jackpot will be paid to everyone who is playing that game in the card room. If the jackpot is hit during a Texas Hold’em game, all of the players playing Hold’em would share in the jackpot.

Each poker room has their own specifications as to which hands qualify as a "bad beat." Many rooms will not only specify the minimum strength of the beaten hand, but also the minimum strength of the winning hand.

In many instance, the lowest hand is a full house of Aces full of tens that is beaten by four of a kind or better. This can vary, and another poker room might have set the jack pot hand as Aces full of Jacks which must be beaten by four eights or higher. Many of the online poker rooms set the minimum hand as quad eights beaten by a higher hand.

In all instances to qualify for the bad beat jackpot, both the winning and losing players MUST use both of their hole cards in making their qualifying hand.

For example if the board was A-A-A-T-7

Player one had: Ace-9

Player two had: K-K

Player one had quad aces and beat player two’s Aces full of kings. This does not qualify because player one did not use both of his hold cards to make his winning hand.

The rules for bad beat jackpots are not standard and vary greatly from poker room to poker room. Always check with your local floorman if you have any questions before you play to make sure you know the rules for qualifying for the jackpot, and how much extra rake is being taken out of every pot.