We’re barely into 2022 and a bunch of players have already picked up a massive Omaha poker bad beat jackpot while playing at GGPoker. In fact, it’s the biggest jackpot payout for a bad beat that’s ever been won on the GGPoker platform.

Saturday, January 15 was a memorable day for the players, who struck lucky to the tune of over $593,000 in total spread across the six that were seated at the table.

If you haven’t heard of a bad beat before, it refers to a hand where one or more players look to have an unbeatable set of cards, only to be beaten on the last card by an even better one.

Now, poker is a real money skill game, but it would take an awful lot of skill to get yourself in a position where, in theory, you couldn’t lose, only to go down in flames.

What exactly is a bad beat jackpot?

Many poker sites recognized how tough this was to take, and introduced the concept of bad beat jackpots to ‘reward’ poker players that might be involved in a bad beat hand. Of course, in a game of poker, it’s never the intention to lose, and actually, you’re using skill and strategy to win the hand and not to lose it.

How was the bad beat hand played out?

The full betting that took place during the rounds are explained here in this Pokernews article, but essentially two of the players held massive hands that went right down to the wire. One player held quad Queens, the other a full house.

The losing player in the hand won over $366k from the bad beat jackpot, with the winner of the hand winning the pot of $5000 and their share of the bad beat of nearly $115k. All other four players at the table got over $29k just for being there.

Will there be more GGPoker Bad Beat Jackpot winners?

Although this was a massive prize for the losing player, there’s a strong chance it won’t be the last. GGPoker actually reported that they gave out a total of over $15 million in bad beat prizes in 2021, with one unlucky player getting hit with a beaten good hand twice in the same month.
Previous jackpots have reached as high as $570K, with the luck loser there taking home a cool $352k.

How do you get to play for the BBJ?

Well, of course, you don’t actually go into a poker game thinking you’re going to get beat and still win a handsome pot. But you do have to play in the right type of game that qualifies you if the unthinkable does really happen.

At GG, you need to be playing in one of the cash games to be eligible for the jackpot. Plus, there are some rules around when the BBJ is activated in a game.

Eligible Jackpot Games at GGPoker

If you play Hold’em Rush or Cash Hold’em, you’ll hit the jackpot by losing with aces full of kings.
For PLO Rush, Cash PLO, or Short Deck Poker games, you’ll need to have a minimum hand of quad nines.
In PLO-5, watch out for quad jacks that might signal the chance to win the BBJ.

Conditions for activating the jackpot in a hand

It won’t be surprising to learn that you can’t win a bad beat jackpot with just any losing hand and there are some rules around when it’s activated:

• The hand must play out and go to a showdown.
• Both the winner and the loser must use both hole cards (or two hole cards in PLO/PLO-5) as part of the best combination of 5.
• For quads, the initial deal must have been pocket pairs.

Final thoughts

Losing a poker hand when you think you’re holding a big one can be extremely painful, but bad beat jackpots are an immensely satisfying way to soften the blow. Amazingly, bad beats can result in substantially bigger wins than actually winning a big poker hand.

If you want to try and land a GGPoker bad beat jackpot yourself, it’ll be hard to do. But clearly, GGPoker is one online poker room where it’s worth the attempt. You can join GG and pick up a nice welcome bonus of 100% up to a maximum of $600 to get started on your quest. You’ll get 90 days of poker playing time to release the full amount, which releases at a rate of $1 for every $5 you pay in rake or tournament entry fees. If you’re a player that likes extra bets during your games then you may also want your time at the GG poker tables enhanced with the side bet feature.