UB, formerly Ultimate Bet, is one of the few online poker rooms which still holds its doors open to players from the United States of America. Of those that do, they’re arguably the most innovative room with heaps of cool ideas such as tables on which the famous 72 bonus game is running. It’s another of their promotions, namely the Bad Beat Jackpot, that’s making the headlines today as it soars past the $600,000 mark, and will surely soon make one unlucky player very happy indeed.
Bad Beat Jackpots aren’t unique to the online poker world, and can be found in a lot of brick and mortar casinos, too. We’ve all experienced the pain of getting money in with a monster only to have it beaten by complete trash or ran up against an extremely unlikely holding, and the Bad Beat Jackpot not only softens that blow, in fact it makes thousands of players yearn for it!
From every pot on Bad Beat Jackpot tables, a certain amount is taken aside not as rake for the poker room, but instead to go towards the jackpot. As more people play and more pots have a few cents taken from, the jackpot climbs and climbs. On Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker, to hit the Bad Beat Jackpot a player must have quad eights or better, using both his cards, and be beaten by a player also using both his cards. While this is a fairly unlikely event, it certainly does happen, and the reward when it does is huge.
When the jackpot is hit, 10% goes to the poker room, and 25% goes to the next jackpot to give it a head start. The remaining 65%, however, all ends up in the hands of the players! Half of this 65% goes to the person who was on the receiving end of the bad beat, a quarter to the winner of the hand, and the rest is split evenly amongst the other players on the table who witnessed and were dealt cards in the hand where the beat took place.
Right now the Bad Beat Jackpot is at $616,735.53 and is still climbing! This is a staggeringly large number, especially when you compare it with the last jackpot which was hit at $102,877.17. Stop dreaming about what you would do with the money and head over to the Ultimate Bet Bad Beat Jackpot tables for your shot at taking down a piece of this massive jackpot!