WORST BAD-BEAT STORY EVER! (12/21/10)

 Worst Bad-Beat Story Ever!

Wait long enough and everything happens.

I'm dealt into a $20/$40 limit Hold'em hand in the Borgata this past weekend and fold rags pre-flop.

It's an uneventful hand, a couple bets and calls, a medium-sized pot.  Then it goes wild at the river when the dealer opens a 5 that pairs the board and creates a flush possibility.  Because it's heads-up by this point, there's no cap on the number of $40 raises. It goes 9 bets! Most I've ever seen on a single card.

When the players open their hands, the first shows pocket fives for four-of-a-kind.

Amazingly, he's lost! The winning player opens a suited Ace-4 and has a steel wheel (A2345), a straight flush in hearts.

The Borgata poker room has a bad beat jackpot -- it's just over $38K when this hand plays. Everyone dealt into a qualifying hand stands to make thousands. The bad-beat loser makes the most, then the winner, followed by the table's other players.

So, why no celebrating? What's the problem?

The $20/$40 limit game at Borgata doesn't play in the bad beat. There are about 80 tables going (most $1/2 and $2/5 no-limit), and we're at the ONLY table in the room not playing for the prize. Ouch!

Painful for us, but way more so to Mr. Quad Fives. He loses 9 bets on the river and doesn't hit the buy-a-car size prize pool. Now that's a bad beat!

- E. Mark the "e-Shark" Gross