Bad Beat Jackpots – are they worth it?

Last night I was playing a cash game – Limit Hold ‘Em – at Absolute Poker. I find that the tables at AP are rather loose. I actually saw a small stacked player, having less than $2.oo in his stack, raise and re-raise until all of his money was all in the pot pre-flop.  All he had was a 7 2 of clubs. Yes they were suited – I could not believe it – and the worst part – there was only one club in the flop, one club on the turn and one club on the river and he won the entire pot! And this was against a pair of Kings! His opponent did not have even have one club. 7 2 against K K and 7 2 wins. This was loose to the extreme.

The tables I was playing on were called “Bad Beat” tables. Basically a small amount  is taken from each pot to build a “Bad Beat Jackpot”. If you lose as a result of a bad beat -  say you had quad eights and were beaten by a higher hand – you would win the lion’s share of the jackpot. Each online poker site that has this type of promotion has their own rules and regulations. To see what Absolute Poker rules are, click here!

Someone had taken a bad beat while I was playing on a table of similar stakes. He/she held a hand that had four eights and lost the hand. At the time, the total jackpot amount was $98,000 and his/her share was about $34,000. The table stacks being played were .50/1.00 with most people having an average stack of about $15.00. Can you imagine winning $34,00o with a losing hand, playing on a micro stakes table? The winning hand received a similar amount and the remaining other 74 players at bad beat tables for the same stakes each got $91.14 as a bad beat payout even though they were not directly involved in the bad beat.

I ended up the evening with over $100 more than I started with as a result of both the bad beat share and my winnings from the loose players. If the action was loose prior to the jackpot, it got even looser as all players receiving the prize were credited  immediately and could use that money at the tables.

Do you play at sites that have bad beat tables? Have you ever had a bad beat and been paid for it? Or do you just avoid this type of site or promotion?