The current bad beat jackpot on popular online poker site Carbon Poker sits at nearly $1 million. In an e-mail sent to affiliates late Sunday night, Carbon Poker officials announced that they expected the seven-figure threshold to be shattered officially within 48 hours. When it will be won remains to be seen.
The e-mail blast read, “This is the largest Bad Beat Jackpot of any poker room currently online. Any player that plays a bad beat table in the 24 hours [after] it hits the million dollar mark will get a coupon entry into a Bad Beat Jackpot Freeroll that has a prize pool of $1,000.” In addition, bad beat sit and go tournaments will kick off beginning when the jackpot reaches $1 million and will run for 24 hours. At the time of writing, the prize pool for a bad beat sits at $988,077.40.
The Bad Beat Jackpot on Carbon Poker is only valid at Texas Hold’em tables. In order to fund it, the online poker room takes $0.50 from each pot on bad beat jackpot cash tables. When the million dollar jackpot is finally hit, 35% of it will go to the loser of the hand. The winner will pocket 17.5% and the same amount will be doled out to other players at the table who were dealt to in the hand. It’s a cause for celebration for Carbon Poker as well, who will take 10% of the jackpot. The remaining 20% serves as seed money for the new jackpot. Players who are sitting out are not eligible to win.
When the jackpot is hit, affiliates of Carbon Poker will win as well. In fact, if the player who wins is tracked to an affiliate, the referrer will receive 1.5% of the payout. Carbon Poker is encouraging affiliates to utilize banners and other online marketing tools in order to steer players to the site, using the extra 1.5% payout to do so.
In order for a hand to be considered a bad beat on Carbon Poker, four sevens must go down in smoke. The winning and losing hands must include both hole cards. In the case of four of a kind, the player must have been dealt a pocket pair (for example, holding 4-4 to make up quad fours). The hand is only tracked if four or more players are involved in the hand and it must generate at least $0.50 in rake. In addition, the hand must go to showdown with at least two players still involved. As long as a hand passes all of those requirements, it is eligible for the bad beat jackpot on Carbon Poker.
The online poker room is a part of the Merge Gaming Network, whose sites also include Reefer Poker, Spin32, PokerNordica, Rumble Poker, TexasHoldem.com, and IronDuke. One of the first notable pros to sign with the network was Jennifer Leigh, known in the online poker world as Jennicide. On this designation, she told Poker News Daily during the month of July, “Being the first official pro to sign with Ironduke.com is very flattering. Their software is very clean and the site is really growing. It’s only getting better.” Her prediction was correct. According to poker traffic ranking site PokerScout.com, the Merge Gaming Network boasts a seven day running average of 475 cash game players with a peak of 802.
On the last Sunday of every month, the site offers a $50,000 freeroll. Anyone who accrues more than 5,000 Comp Points during a calendar month is eligible. Weekly $10,000 freerolls as well as other opportunities for free money are available. In addition to the Texas Hold’em bad beat jackpot, Caribbean Stud has several jackpots. In the seven card game, the amount players can win through the bad beat jackpot is based on bet size.
