Friday the 13th has a fearsome reputation for bad luck, but at least for 9 players at Playground Poker Club this morning, it turned out to be a pretty lucky day! It happened just before noon on Table 5, which was a $1/$2 table. The table was full (9 players), the button was on seat 8, meaning that seat 9 was the small blind and seat 1 was the big blind. Before the flop, the player in seat 5 raised to $13 and found callers in seat 6, seat 8, and seat 1 (bb). Four players went to the flop, which was dealt: . Action was on seat 1, who checked, and seat 5 continued with a bet of $30. Again, seats 6 and 8 both called, as did seat 1. The turn was the , and again, the first player to act in seat 1 checked, seat 5 bet […]

One of the greatest things for players about the big poker festivals we host at Playground Poker Club is the fact that alongside the tourneys, players also benefit from amazing cash game action as well. And one of the best things about cash games at Playground Club is… the Bad Beat Jackpot! Just before 6pm on Sunday, the Secondary Bad Beat Jackpot was won on a $1/$2 table in the main poker room. The hand unfolded with little drama, but at by the time all of the cards were dealt, there was a table full of very happy poker players! The hand played out quite predictably. The player in the UTG+1 seat raised preflop to $12, and the player two seats to his left re-raised to $22. Action folded back to the initial raiser, who confidently moved all-in for $102 (total). His opponent quickly called and exposed his hand: Pocket […]

Just 6 days after the first Secondary Bad Beat Jackpot was dealt, the Primary Bad Beat Jackpot was up to $313,614 and the minimum qualifying hand was down to quad 7s. At almost exactly 12 noon, on a $2/$5 table, there was some drama on the way to hitting the jackpot. Five players saw the flop , and the action checked around. On the turn , a player (who we would learn was holding for flopped trips) bet $10. The player to his left folded and the next player to act (who was holding for a flopped flush that had improved to a straight flush on the turn) smooth called. The river brought the , and all of the pieces were in place. The player holding quads led out with a bet of $20. His rival in the hand raised to $145, and action was back on the initial player that […]

This year’s first Bad Beat Jackpot came on January 16th just after 9 in the morning at a $1/$2 table with 9 players in the hand. There was a straddle to $5 in the hand and an early position call, and then a player in middle position raised to $12. The player to the left of the raiser called, as did the blinds, the original player who straddled, and the first caller. There were 6 players to the flop, which came: . The first two players to act both checked, and then there was a bet of $18 into a $72 pot. The next player to act folded, and then the player who had made the first raise to $12 went all-in for his remaining $45. There were three calls, and the pot was now up to $198 with 4 players in the hand. The turn brought the and the […]

It’s almost as if it’s a new trend! For the second festival in a row, the Primary Bad Beat Jackpot has been hit on one of the cash tables, while the Main Event is in play. Alecsei Veitzman was holding when the flop came , but once the turn hit, his hand was second best to Geovanni Stephen’s straight flush, whose hole cards were . After the fell on the river and both players opened their hands, a rumble took over the entire club as the table realized what just happened: the Primary Bad Beat Jackpot of $277,243 was just hit! Along with this Bad Beat Jackpot comes some news starting immediately, there are NEW BBJ rules in effect. In a nutshell, the new Primary Bad Beat Jackpot starts at a whopping $150,000 and the minimum qualifying hand goes down every 3 weeks. As well, the Secondary Bad Beat Jackpot […]

As if Day 1a of the WPT Canadian Spring Championship and the kickoff of the final table of Event 4 of the Playground Poker Spring Classic weren t enough, today just after 3pm the record-setting Primary Bad Beat Jackpot was won on Table 13, a $1-$2 No Limit Hold’em cash table! The table had 9 people playing when the Jackpot hand was hit. The button was on Seat 5. Action folded to the player in Seat 1, who raised to $16. The player in Seat 2 called, as did the player on the button in Seat 5. The flop was dealt: . Seats 1 and 2 both checked and Seat 5 led out for $11. Both players called. The turn came and again Seats 1 and 2 both checked. Seat 5 bet again $20 this time, and both players called. The river was the and Seat 1 led out with […]

Last week the Primary BBJ moved into record territory, and the Primary Bad Beat Jackpot has continued to climb through the weekend to over $350000! This is a record at Playground Poker Club, and the next winner of the jackpot is on track for a huge payday! To put that in perspective, a player at the table who isn’t even involved in the jackpot hand will stand to win almost $10K when it hits! The minimum qualifying hand is now at Quad 5s and on March 12 it will go down to Quad 4s, where it will stand for the following 2 weeks. Of course as the Primary BBJ grows, so does the secondary BBJ with the lowest hand requirement: Aces over Kings (pair in hole cards). It’s already over $70K – and so even the smaller jackpot now will lead to pretty impressive payouts! So come on out to […]

Yesterday at about 6:30pm, two regular players got involved in a very memorable hand that resulted in the awarding of the largest Jackpot in Playground Poker Club history! The loser of the hand (hence the winner of the top jackpot prize) was Christopher McClung, who is a Players Club member and a familiar face at tables at stakes ranging from $2-$5 all the way up to the largest games offered at the Club. The winner of the hand was Marie Tran, better known to most by her screen name of ‘Princess’ who is well-known for her fine dresses, talkative nature and her aggressive play at the tables. As we all came to find out, Marie raised pocket Jacks preflop and was called by Chris holding pocket 88. The flop was a monster for both players: gave Marie top set while Chris flopped bottom set. An on the turn pretty much […]

The Bad Beat Jackpot has been a popular promotion since the beginning here at Playground Poker Club. Over the years the BBJ has changed a few times, and the next version of the Bad Beat Jackpot – which is actually THREE Jackpots – starts immediately. The new Bad Beat Jackpot has three elements. First is the Primary BBJ: the jackpot starts at whopping $100K and the minimum qualifying hand starts at Quad Aces (in other words, a player has to lose a hand with AAAA including the pocket AA to a straight flush or better) in week one. But then it gets fun… the minimum qualifying hand goes down every second week thereafter. The Secondary BBJ requires a player to lose a minimum $20 pot with AAAKK (including a pocket pair). The third element is a new Omaha BBJ – losing with Quad 8s just got a lot more interesting! […]

It’s been an exciting week in the world of Canadian poker, starting with the announcement that Playground Poker Club will play host to the WPT Montreal in November 2012 followed by Playground Players Club member Antonio Esfandiari winning over 18 million at this year’s WSOP in the Big One for One Drop Tournament. The excitement hit a fever pitch at Playground this past week with news of yet another Bad Beat Jackpot hitting, paying players over $112000. The payday for players has now brought the overall BBJ total at Playground past the one million dollar mark. Mark Irgang was the big winner at the table, taking home a whopping $44,903 while Robert Vaillancourt cashed in for $22,449 with the winning hand, quad kings, which beat out a full house. The remaining seven players seated at the same table each walked away with $3,207 while all other cash game players who […]

One of the more fruitful bad beat jackpots in the poker world continues to raise the barometer as the 100K minimum guaranteed jackpot hit again in the early morning hours of May 1st, 2012 at Playground Poker Club. Since the BBJ started being reseeded at 100K back in February of 2012, it has hit a total of five times paying out players over $531,000 in cash. When asked about the increasing frequency of the BBJ hitting in such a short period, Martin Roy, the Club’s Tournament Director says that it all comes down to simple math. ‘The Bad Beat can be hit once in every 75,000 hands and the more cash game play at the club, the more hands are dealt and the sooner the jackpot hits’. Martin goes on to explain that traffic at the club is always steady. ‘Playground spreads a game for almost any level of poker […]

A little over a month ago, poker players at Playground Poker Club in Kahnawake Quebec, just outside Montreal, got to reap the benefits of one of the Club’s most appealing promotions, the $100,000 minimum Bad Beat Jackpot. Not only did it hit once, but it hit twice in less than five days and paid cash game players over $231,000 in bonus money. Only five short weeks later on March 27th, the Bad Beat Jackpot hit once more and lined the pockets of lucky cash game players at Playground Poker Club with over 100K in cold, hard cash. ‘It seems that giving large sums of money away is starting to become a regular thing at the Club’ says Playground’s COO, David Montour. ‘When we first launched the promotion, the players were excited about it but I don’t think anybody, including myself, expected it to hit three times in less than six […]