"Gsquadstyle" is my hero!

....and "SantaLovesMe" is a helluva a feller too! Either one of these guys could have made a dumb move that would have cost them (and me!) a lot of money. But they didn't. They played it cool, God love 'em.

I was playing on PartyPoker this morning, at one of their "Bad Beat Jackpot" tables, when these two players were involved in the most amazing bad beat I've ever witnessed. And because I was sitting at the table when it happened, I got a cool $12, 426.

If you are unfamiliar with bad beat jackpots, let me explain how the one at PartyPoker works: Fifty cents from each hand that sees a flop goes into the jackpot. There are dozens and dozens of these bad-beat tables, so the Jackpot builds fairly quickly - I'd say by about $25,ooo every day. The jackpot builds until it is won by a qualifying bad beat - a hand of Quad eights or better that loses! To make it even tougher, to qualify for the Jackpot both winning and losing hands must use both their hole cards. How unlikely is this? I haven't figured out the odds, but I'd say it is about as likely as hitting two hole-in-one's in a single round of golf. Astronomically unlikely. When this particular jackpot is hit, 30,000 is taken out as "seed money" for the next jackpot. Of what remains 50% goes to the bad beat loser, 25% to the hand winner, and the remaining 25% is split between anyone else who was dealt cards in the hand.

Here's how this mornings bad beat went down:

I was playing at a six-player table with .50/$1 blinds. I was dealt a suited queen under-the-gun, and folded it. The next guy (Pumuking, who has a very amusing picture of a monkey as his avatar) also folds. Next is hero #1, Gsquadstyle, who has 10s 10h. He could have killed this whole thing right here with some kind of stupid over-bet, but instead he raised what was the standard $3. Lovely! The button (Slevin K) folds. SantaLovesMe is in the small blind and he has a very good hand - Ac Kc, but one that is vulnerable if he doesn't hit the flop. So he raises to $9.50. The big blind (VictoryCica) folds. It would have been pretty gutless of Gsquadstyle to fold here, and thankfully he doesn't. He calls.

The flop comes: 6c Qc Jc. SantaLovesMe flopped an ace high flush while Gsquadstyle is holding only a pair of tens. If SantaLovesMe makes any bet here, it is almost certain that Gsquadstyle would have folded...but SantaLovesMe is thankfully not that stupid - he knows enough to check the nuts. Besides there is a possibility his opponent has a set, so the the bad beat might come into play. I could kiss SantaLovesMe for that check. Gsquadstyle also checks, of course.

The turn is the 10c. This gives SantaLovesMe an unbeatable royal flush, but it also gives Gsquadstyle a set of 10's. I like to believe that at this point both players were only thinking about the possibility of a bad beat and making sure they didn't fuck it up. SantaLovesMe checks his royal flush (good boy!) and Gsquad bets about 2/3 the pot. This is NOT a mistake on his part - remember, since the flop there has been no betting, so Santa might have pocket 7's for all Quadstyle knows. This bet is a way for Quadstyle to sense if there is a possibility of a bad beat, and if not then he might as well scoop up the pot right here. Santa, you will not be surprised to hear, calls.

Now comes the river. There is only one ten left in the deck; the ten of diamonds, but if by some miracle it comes then ladies and gents we got ourselves a bad beat jackpot!

The river is the 10 of diamonds. A royal flush over quad 10's.

The players who folded pre-flop like myself get $12,426 each just for being there. SantaLovesMe (Yes he does!) gets $49,704 and the appropriately named Gsquadstyle gets $99,408 for hitting runner-runner quads and losing.

And I doubt I will ever see a hand like that as long as I live.