Benjamin Flanagan will not forget August 26, 2022 as he triggered a record bad beat jackpot in a $1/$3 no-limit hold’em game that took place at Rivers Casino. The West Virginia resident held quad aces only to be defeated by the royal flush of Raymond Broderson, leading to a $1.2 million bad beat jackpot, the biggest in US live poker history.
Winner Takes Home $490,708
Flanagan, being the player who lost the hand, walked away with the largest share of the jackpot, worth $490,708, while Broderson took home $368,029. The other four remaining players at the table had Flanagan to thank for as they too benefited from the outcome of the hand, each winning $61,338.
Seven-Figure Bad Beat Jackpots Not New
The $1.2 million recently awarded at Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh is by far the largest bad beat payout in the US, but it wasn’t the first seven-figure jackpot to be hit. In 2018, a $1,068,590 bad beat jackpot was also triggered at Motor City Casino in Detroit.
In 2017, the Playground Poker Club in neighboring Canada paid out $1,210,989 in total jackpot after Elphege Delarosbil lost his quad jacks to the straight flush of Shane Galle. Then just in June, the same poker room awarded $2.2 million in bad bead jackpot, and the player who triggered it won a hefty $845,000.