BAD BEAT RULES CLARIFICATION

To qualify for the Bad Beat jackpot, both hole cards must play and be NEEDED to make the hand. If your hand would be exactly the same without one of your hole cards, that card isn’t needed — so it isn’t playing, and the hand doesn’t qualify.

For example: the board is A A A Q 5. One player holds pocket kings — aces full of kings. The other player holds pocket queens — aces full of queens, the beaten hand. The kings pass the test: there’s no king on the board, so both hole kings are needed to make their hand. The queens don’t: aces full of queens is made of two queens, and the board already shows one of them — so only one hole queen is needed. Either queen could be replaced with a 2 and the hand would be exactly the same. That queen isn’t needed, so it isn’t playing.

So, in this example, the jackpot would NOT be triggered.