The rules are the rules, and as such, Doug Polk’s Lodge Card Room won’t be awarding a $118,000 jackpot to a straight flush vs straight flush hand.
It has been a bad summer for Bad Beat Jackpots. Last month one was disqualified when a dealer folded the hand and now this.
At Doug Polk’s Lodge Card Club two players flopped straight flushes playing PLO, making them eligible for the Bad Beat Jackpot of $118,000. This would have given around $57,200 to the ‘loser’, $28,600 to the ‘winner’ and the rest shared among the players in the room at the time.
However, the river card gave the ‘winner’ a Royal Flush, making it ineligible.
Follow up with rules
– The qualifier in 4-card Omaha is a Straight Flush (flop only)
– The winning and losing players must use exactly two hole cards to create the highest possible 5-card hand.
– In Omaha games, both the winning and losing hands must be flopped.…
— Doug Polk (@DougPolkVids) August 16, 2024
This is because the Bad Beat Jackpot is only eligible based on the flop in PLO at this card room. The king high straight flush was beating the jack high straight flush on the flop, but the Ace of Diamonds on the river meant that the best hand was not a flopped one.
The reason for this particular rule is that in PLO, so many more cards are in play, which incentivises the players to check it down to make better hands in a Bad Beat Jackpot. So flopped only is the rule at the Lodge.
It does seem unfair, however, that the players are made to abide by flop only, but the card room is not. Despite a lot of pushback on social media, Polk did not back down stating that the rules were the rules.
Do you agree with this ruling? Let us know in the comments: