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Losing Poker Hand Paid Over $464,000

Absolute Poker Pays Big For Losing Poker Hand

By Robert Arbizo
July 13, 2007

If there's one thing that poker players have in common, it is a fondness for telling stories of their poker exploits. Be it a large winning hand, or a winning hand that was cracked by an underdog, poker players love to talk about their more exciting experience. One player now has a whopper of a tale to tell after generating nearly half a million dollars with a losing poker hand.

As unbelievable as this may sound, that's exactly what happened yesterday at Absolute Poker, according to a press release issued by the company. A player with a nearly unbeatable hand, Four Aces, was beaten at the table by a player holding a Royal Flush, the highest hand in poker. To the astonishment of the poker world, the player with the losing hand generated more than $464,000 in prize money, which is simply unheard of in the world of online poker.

The prize money was awarded because the losing player, identified by the screen name Calvinhobbes, was seated at one of Absolute Poker's "Bad Beat Jackpot" tables. These tables can be identified in the lobby of the poker room because they are marked as "Jackpot". An additional $0.50 is held from each qualifying hand on the jackpot tables, which is then contributed to a progressive jackpot. In order to win the jackpot, a player must have a hand with Four 8s or better, and be beaten. This scenario pays out the bad beat jackpot.

The odds of hitting a Royal Flush while playing Texas Holdem Poker are roughly 600,000:1. The odds of hitting one against Four Aces is nearly impossible to calculate. Needless to say, player Calvinhobbes felt as though he was in good shape holding a pair of pocket aces and seeing two other aces on the board.

As it turned out, someone else at the table had a better hand, but this is one time that Calvinhobbes was happy to lose. Knowing he was seated at a Bad Beat Jackpot table with a jackpot of $464,652, Calvinhobbes was probably quite happy to be taken down by the Royal Flush.

"With nearly one million hands dealt since the last hit on July 3rd, our Bad Beat Jackpot had climbed to over $464,000," stated David Clainer, Senior Vice President for Absolute Poker. "Online poker players flooded the site in record numbers for a shot at winning an unfathomable amount of cash just by losing a hand."

Of course, Calvinhobbes was not alone in this victory. Everyone involved shared in the wealth. For his role of being the losing player, Calvinhobbes was awarded $162,628.21. Everyone who participated in the hand that won the jackpot also split $162,628.21. The person who beat Calvinhobbes with the Royal Flush is happy to take home an extra $81,000, and everyone else received $20,000 each just for being at the table.

Prior to this bad beat victory, the most recent person to win the bad beat jackpot collected their chips on July 3rd, after sharing a jackpot of $297,287.63