Atlantic City Weekly

September is shaping up to be a pretty busy month in the city’s poker rooms with two major tournaments planned, but one hope for some packed rooms seems to have misfired, done in by a royal flush.

When Harrah’s Entertainment announced it was combining the bad-beat jackpots in all four of its local rooms — Caesars, Harrah’s, Showboat and Bally’s — the casino company went for a big splash setting the initial jackpot at $524,000. Presumably, it was a combination of the pots for the four separate bad beats already in place prior to the switch.

Add to that the fact that the new bad beat sets a minimum hand for the bad beat at quad queens, which is pretty high and unlikely to hit. The minimum will go down each week it doesn’t hit, to four jacks, four 10s and so on, until it bottoms out at four deuces.

Still, at quad queens to start, it figured that the jackpot would take awhile to hit and that the jackpot — compiled from four rooms’ worth of play — would keep climbing. The record $672,000 jackpot at the Taj Mahal set in June seemed a goner and the chance that a $1 million jackpot might be reached seemed possible. (We kind of got caught up in that too.)

Well, call it the best-laid plans, but the bad beat hit just two days after the new system went into effect. The jackpot was at $535,469.60 when it hit Thursday, Aug. 26, at about 11am.

According to Harrah’s, Sheryl Wallace of Auburndale, Fla., laid out what she thought was a winning hand of straight flush diamonds, only to experience a bad beat by Monmouth, N.J’s own John Sweet Jr., boasting royal flush diamonds and the win. Wallace’s losing hand earned her $163,343 while Sweet’s winning hand added $109,797 to his wallet.

Dueling straight flushes, go figure.

But one of the most interesting aspects of the new bad beat worked perfectly. Instead of paying only the players at the table, the bad beat pays everyone playing cash games in a Harrah’s owned room. Players netted $2,705 just for getting in a little poker action before lunch.

Still, there was no record and no sustained bad-beat mania. The jackpot reset to $100,000 and stood at about $130,000 Monday, Aug. 30. Looks like it will take quite awhile to get to $1 million.

Meanwhile, Harrah’s has announced a $200,000 Harrah’s Poker Open event for Sept. 23-27 that will feature appearances by poker pro Annie Duke on Sept. 24 and 25. Duke has a promotional deal with Harrah’s and the World Series of Poker and last appeared at the casino in May. Her exact schedule hasn’t been released, but in May, Duke spent some time on the floor and even played a few hands with the public.

The open sports five tournaments with guaranteed prize pools. The biggest is a $100,000 guaranteed, $300 + $40 No Limit Deepstack event Sept. 25 to 26.

Others include $15,000 guaranteed, $125 + $25 events Sept. 23 and 27; a $30,000 guaranteed $200 + $30 event Sept. 24; and a $40,000 guaranteed, $200 + $30 event Sept. 26.

Of course the next big tournament in the city is the Borgata Poker Open from Sept. 8-23. The World Poker Tour stop includes the open championship, which starts Sept. 18 and is a $2 million guaranteed prize pool, no limit tournament with a $3,300 + $200 buy-in.

The main open includes 21 events, but the casino has released a schedule for 32 more events, including satellites and some quick action survivor tournaments. Survivor tournaments give a prize of 10 times the buy-in to the last 10 percent of players who — get this — survive. Survivor tournaments are scheduled daily (at 3pm or 4pm) Sept. 8-16.

Satellites for the open championship begin Sept. 16-18. They sport a number of different buy-ins, from $200 to $750.
The schedule also includes a lot of evening tournaments, most at $150 + 30.

The schedules for both tournaments, for the Harrah’s Open and the Borgata Open, are at “The Real Deal,” Atlantic City Weekly’s poker blog at acweekly.com/poker. 

Here’s a look at the rest of the city’s tournament action:

Bally’s
Billy’s Poker Room is located on the sixth floor. Poker Tournament Schedule:
Monday, Tuesday & Thursday at 1pm & 7pm - $40 + $10
Wednesday Speed Tournaments at 1pm & 7pm - $40 + $10
Friday Speed Tournament at 1pm $40 + $20
Friday at 9pm - $100 + $20 ($15,000 chips)
Saturday at 1pm - $60 + $15
Saturday at 7pm - $60 + $15 ($15,000 chips)
Sunday Speed Tournaments at 1pm & 6pm - $40 + $10 ($10,000 chips, 12 minute level)
Tournaments are subject to cancellation at management’s discretion. For more information, call 340-1143.
Bally’s has Bad Beat progressive jackpots and special comp reward credits for specific hands. Plus, every Thursday, earn double comps for all play from 6pm to midnight. Every Monday through Wednesday, score one of the winning hands below and receive additional comps as your prize:
• Royal Flush = $20,000 Bonus Reward Credits
• Straight Flush = $5,000 Bonus Reward Credits
• Four of a Kind = $2,000 Bonus Reward Credits

Borgata
The Borgata offers 85 tables and features all variations of Texas Hold ‘Em, 7-Card Stud and Omaha. The casino has daily poker tournaments with buy-ins of $100 + $20 weekdays and $300 + $40 Friday and Saturday. Special room rates are available for all tournament players.
The Borgata also has daily single table “Sit and Go” tournaments that have buy-ins ranging from $30 + $10 to $1,000 + $60.
Borgata has Survivor Tournaments that are multi-table cash tournaments. One in every ten players wins ten times the buy-in. Fridays at 5pm: $350 Buy-in + $50 Entry. Sunday at 11am and 4pm: $150 Buy-in + $30 Entry. www.theborgata.com