- Carbon Poker has announced the revival of the bad beat jackpot (BBJ) on the Merge Gaming network.
- The prize fund will be funded by the site, not by an additional player contribution.
- Every minute $0.10 will automatically be added to the jackpot fund.
Carbon Poker has announced the revival of the bad beat jackpot (BBJ) on the Merge Gaming network. Like most revivals, the old favorites come back with a difference—this time there is no player contribution to the jackpot prize fund.
Merge eradicated its BBJ along with other poker rooms as the promotion’s side effects came to outweigh its advantages. Player pools divided between normal and bad beat jackpot tables served to reduce the network’s effective cash game liquidity.
The new incarnation of the BBJ aims to resolve the weaknesses of its predecessor. The minimum bad beat qualifying hand has been set at quad 2s, ensuring that the jackpot will pay out more often. The BBJ will apply to all cash games at 6 max and full ring tables—heads up tables are excluded. All tables will be equal and the player pool will not be divided with the new system.
Most importantly, the prize fund will be funded by the site, not by an additional player contribution. Every minute $0.10 will automatically be added to the jackpot fund. A new counter visible on cash game tables will keep a running total of the fund.
The payout structure will award 38% of the fund to the player who loses the jackpot hand. 20.5% will go to the winner of the hand and another 20.5% will be split equally between all the other payers who were dealt in to the hand. 21% of the fund will go to re-seed the jackpot so that there will always be a bonus available—even if a qualifying bad beat occurs immediately after one has paid out.
Previous BBJ’s were criticized because the operator often retained a percentage for themselves. In this new system, all the money will go directly to the players.
The Winning Poker Network (WPN) has changed its Beast promotion this month to remove the player contribution that damaged liquidity, and Microgaming (MPN) converted its BBJ to an opt in system to solve the same problem—the prize fund is funded by contributions from opted in players.
