Southern California’s first Mega Share Bad Beat Jackpot just hit at $208, 085 late Friday night, paying off 30 percent of the jackpot ($62,501.00) to the losing hand of four queens to Monique Tolentino of Murrieta.

The royal flush held by Perry Panno may have won the pot, but took second in the jackpot payoff, with 20 percent or $41,617.  Such is the nature of a “Bad Beat” jackpot, where the losing hand wins. In the Pechanga Poker Room, it took beating quad tens or better to trigger.

When the high hands were declared, there are two qualifying rules that come into play: both the winning and losing hands must play their two hole cards, with the board playing first. In this instance four queens (Qc,Qd,Qh,Qs,Ac) was beaten out by nothing less than a royal flush of clubs (10c, Jc, Qc, Kc, Ac). It is a requirement of the jackpot trigger to use both hole cards for each hand, which they were in this instance.

The other six players at the table shared 30 percent ($62,426) of the jackpot, or  $10,404 per seat. In addition, all 183 active Texas Hold’em players in the room took home a combined 20 percent ($41,541) of the jackpot, or $227 per seat.

The Pechanga Mega Share Bad Beat Jackpot is funded by a portion of a $1 promotional drop per hand in all live Texas Hold’em games. Thus, the Mega Share Bad Beat Jackpot increases with every Texas Hold’em hand and has now been reset to $93,453. However, in order to increase players’ chances of winning, the jackpot will begin a new tier system, whereby as each ten thousand dollars is added to the jackpot, the hand qualifier reduces by one (i.e. – quad 7’s, quad 6’s etc.) until any four-of-a-kind qualifies at $130,000.