Bad Beat Jackpot Record Broken

August 18 - Poker playing reached fever pitch at PartyPoker online poker room late last week when the industry record for the Bad Beat Jackpot game was finally broken. The previous record stood at $992,000 but PartyPoker announced that the latest amount crossed the magic line to $1,013,281!

The rules of the Bad Beat Jackpot state that a player wins this jackpot if he or she loses with a hand that is four of a kind, eights or better. However difficult this may seem, luck seemed to be on Judith M.'s side - even when it involved losing!

This player, who comes from Germany, lost with four nines, thanks to the fact that sitting at her table held a Royal Flush, while a fellow-German player had a full house!

Losing to a Royal Flush earned Judith M. a significant part of the jackpot, as she pocketed $354,683. The winning hand earned itself $177,341, in addition to the game's $24 pot!

The beauty of the Bad Beat Jackpot game is that everyone at the 'loser's' table wins something, and all the other players won $22,167.

The rules of the Bad Beat Jackpot state that the losing hand grabs 50% of the prize, 25% to the player with the winning hand and the remaining 25% is split between the other players at the table.

A spokesman for PartyPoker, one of the most popular poker rooms on the internet, said about the win: "Online poker history has been made by setting a new world record for a bad beat jackpot. To hit seven figures is quite something! It has been quite some week at PartyPoker.com. We recently celebrated our seventh birthday and smashed the guarantee for our special Birthday Million tournament! Most of the world's attention this week is focused on elite athletes going for gold. At the same time, it seems that the online poker community has found its own gold mine!"