Record Bad Beat Jackpot Hits at Lodge Card Club

A $289,376 state record bad beat jackpot has been hit at The Lodge Card Club in Round Rock, Texas.

The rules for NL Hold’em are that both players must use both hole cards and lose with quads tens or better. But this hand took place at a PLO table with stakes of $2/$5/$10 where the rules are even tougher to meet.

Not only must the losing player hit a straight flush that gets beat, but the best hand must have been made on the flop.

My husband @hfortini just informed me that the bad beat hit at @LodgePokerClub!

$290k jackpot!

Looks like flopped straight flushed in $1-2-5 PLO.

Congrats to all the players! 💥💃🏻 pic.twitter.com/gTpKs3r60G

— Kimberly Fortini (@sunkimstone) February 5, 2025

$289,376 Bad Beat Jackpot Hand

Player 1 opened from UTG to $35 with  A♦ K♦ 7♣ 6♣ and Player 2 called with A♣ 2♣ K♠ 6♠ in the cutoff.

The flop came down 5♣ 4♣ 3♣ and both players checked, understandably.

The turn was the J♥ and Player 1 bet out for $130. Player 2 opted to slowplay, only calling.

The river was the 5♥. Player 1 now bets out for $400 and Player 2 instantly jams all-in and gets an equally fast call.

As soon as the hole cards are turned over, all of the players around the table start jumping up in delight, knowing that they’ll get a slice of the huge prize.

$290,000 BAD BEAT HITS @LodgePokerATX pic.twitter.com/3Ilo6azbIN

— Lodge Card Club (@LodgePokerClub) February 5, 2025

It took a while for the prize money to grow to such a sum because Texas laws mean that the club cannot add to the pot via rake collection. Instead, Doug Polk and his business partners add in $1,000 every day.

Previous Mega Bad Beat Fell Foul of the Rules

Six months ago, we saw one of the most galling bad beat jackpot failures you can imagine.

We had a flop of J♦ 9♦ 10♦ and the money went in quickly. The players flipped over K♦ Q♦ and 8♦ 7♦, both hitting qualifying hands for the bad beat jackpot.

But that was as good as it got…

The players were no doubt ecstatic, not seeing anything that could possibly go wrong, but then again, how many of us have failed to read the smallprint before?

The player with the losing hand was set to receive a cool $57,200 — 50% of the jackpot — and the “winning” player would have got 25%, with the other 25% going to the rest of the table and players also playing at the time.

The turn was a brick J♥ and then tragedy struck. The A♦ river improved the “winning” hand to a royal flush, meaning no jackpot was triggered as at The Lodge Card Club it is a “flop only” trigger.

We can’t imagine what the players were thinking at the time.