Merge Network Introducing Rolling Bad Beat Jackpot At Cash Tables

UPDATED: 4-9-14, 2am EST: The Merge Gaming Network has announced that they will be re-introducing a rolling bad beat jackpot at their Hold'em cash game tables starting on Wednesday, April 9th, making them the only current US-facing operation to offer such a promotion. ProfRB.com has you covered with the details below.

Merge Gaming Network - Carbon & YouWin Poker - Introduce Free Bad Beat Jackpot

Most Bad Beat Jackpots offered by online and brick and mortar poker rooms charge an exorbitant extra fee known commonly as the "BBJ drop." The bad beat jackpot (BBJ) on Carbon Poker, Aced Poker, and Youwin Poker will be covered 100% by Merge-partnered online poker rooms, meaning there will be no increased fees or rake used to grow it. A rolling graphic denoting the BBJ will be added to all cash game tables for easy reference.  This graphic is located in the upper left hand corner of all bad beat jackpot eligible online poker cash games.

The new BBJ pool will start at $1,000, and will increase at a rate of $0.10 per minute regardless of the amount of play.

Players in 6-max and full ring tables (including fixed limit tables) will be eligible to hit the BBJ. Other requirements include three players needing to be dealt in at the start of the hand, and two players must go to showdown after all community cards are displayed. Both the winner of the hand and the player suffering the bad beat must use both hole cards to be eligible to hit the BBJ.

According to the announcement made by leading Merge room Carbon Poker, the hand requirements to hit the BBJ will be lower than traditional promotions ran by other rooms in the past.  Traditionally a bad beat jackpot requires that at least four players be dealt into a hand, the hand goes to showdown, at showdown one player has to lose the hand with a minimum of quad sevens using both hole cards.  It makes for pretty steep odds.  The New Bad Beat Jackpot however has much more relaxed requirements.  A player with any four of a kind hand losing to a better four of a kind, straight flush, or royal flush qualifies to win the BBJ - provided both players use their two hole cards as explained above.  Quad 2s will suffice.  That increases the probability of hitting the BBJ about twentyfold right there!

Every single poker player at the table who was dealt into the poker hand where the Merge Gaming bad beat jackpot was hit will earn a portion of the BBJ should a hand qualify. 38% of the jackpot will go to the player who endured the bad beat, 20.5% will go to the winner of the hand, and 20.5% will be evenly split among the other players at the table. The remaining 21% will be used to re-seed the jackpot prize pool.  Twenty one percent is a pretty sizeable percentage to withold, but keep in mind, this BBJ is completely free so its not like the usual charge most poker rooms have when running a BBJ.  No leakage here, just pure value for the players.

Merge had previously offered a BBJ to its players several years ago, but ceased the promotion back in August of 2012. According to the Carbon Poker website, the BBJ had been hit at over $1,000,000 at least once during its previous run.

Again, the new BBJ promotion will begin this Wednesday, April 9th.  If you'd like to take advantage of this new Bad Beat Jackpot, please consider signing up at Carbon Poker or Aced Poker via ProfRB.com. UPDATE November 2014 - Aced is no longer an active skin as it was absorbed by its larger sister site Carbon.  All player funds were seemlessly transferred over and play continues as normal.

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