The bad-beat jackpot was sitting near $60,000, and there was $500 in the middle when the man threw his final chips in. Too, but they did get to walk away with the ultimate bad-beat poker story. It’s the one possible saving grace when you have a huge hand and bump into an even bigger one, and this week has seen two stories about poker ‘Bad Beat’ jackpots in the news, the first a $120,000 clusterfuck of a tale from Las Vegas - the second providing over $1million worth of possibilities in Detroit.

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It’s the one possible saving grace when you have a huge hand and bump into an even bigger one, and this week has seen two stories about poker ‘Bad Beat’ jackpots in the news, the first a $120,000 clusterfuck of a tale from Las Vegas - the second providing over $1million worth of possibilities in Detroit.

First up, a Vegas bad beat story which may yet have a happy ending, as the Nevada Gaming Control Board are meeting again to decide whether 83-year-old Avi Shamir deserves his $60,000 share of the Station Casinos' ‘Jumbo Hold 'Em Poker Progressive Jackpot’ promotion.

The problem? Shamir’s straight flush was beaten by a bigger straight flush held by Len Schreter, who unfortunately showed his hand as soon as the river was dealt – breaking a cardroom rule that all action must be completed without interference for the bad beat jackpot to be valid.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that ‘A review of surveillance video of the game showed that Schreter exposed the two cards he was holding out of order as the game concluded,’ adding that, ‘According to Station’s Jumbo Hold ‘Em Jackpot official rules, “discussion of hands during the play by players, at the discretion of management, may void a Jumbo Hold ‘Em Jackpot.”

At the initial hearing Schreter said:

“I was hurt emotionally by Red Rock [part of the Station Casinos group] but this guy [Avi Shamir] was hurt financially. Red Rock kicked me in the stomach, but Red Rock kicked him in a place a lot lower than that.”

Schreter’s impetuous actions have already been ruled as not changing the game’s outcome by the gaming board, but Stations have appealed the decision, so the bad beat duo – and the 80 or so others who were due a share of the jackpot for playing at the time it was hit – will have to wait a little longer to find out if they’ll get paid or not.

The $120,000 Vegas Progressive jackpot was dwarfed by news that a Detroit cardroom jackpot had topped the $1million mark, the MotorCity Casino’s ‘Texas hold’em bad beat’ pot sitting at $1,010,380.45 as the weekend kicked off.

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Claiming it as the largest bad beat jackpot in the city’s history, to qualify players will need to lose with quads against bigger quads with both hole cards in play. No easy task, but a share of a million bucks will ease whatever pain a player might feel should it happen.

Cardplayer.com reported that the Detroit Million isn’t the only time a $million+ payday has been won in the bad beat stakes, Canadian Elphege Delarosbil picking up $460,000 for seeing his turned quad jacks lose to a queen-high straight flush this year, the winner of the hand scooping $230,000, while others at the table got $30K each and everyone else playing poker in the room $1200 better off.

The greatest “bad beat jackpot” in United States history just cushioned the blow of an absolutely rough hand of poker for a losing player and then some.

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At the Motor City Casino in Detroit this week, a player who had four 3s lost to another who had four Queens, which is just the worst:

But because there was a “bad beat jackpot” in the casino, the losing player won a share of over $1 million. MLive.com explained how that worked:

At the Motor City Casino, in Texas Hold ’em poker, if a player hits any four of a kind and is beaten by another player’s four of a kind, they hit the bad beat jackpot. Both players must have pocket pairs. The four of a kind must only be beaten by another four of a kind. A straight flush only wins them the much smaller bad beat jackpot. The rules are slightly different at the MGM Grand Detroit and Greektown. The bad beat jackpot can be hit if a player’s four of a kind loses to a straight flush. That makes it slightly easier to win. The odds of hitting either are astronomical, but it does happen.

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Many other poker rooms offer the jackpots, which gather money over time, and the majority of the cash in the pot (40 percent in this case, good for over $427,000 here) goes to the loser. The winning hand gets 20 percent, and the rest of the table (this time, it was six players) split the rest.

So in this case, it really did pay to lose.