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. 

We wanted to know the Pechanga Facebook community’s favorite gambling comeback stories, but we never expected to hear such epic tales from both here at Pechanga and abroad. Take a look at a few of our favorites below:

Eric won tickets to Ray Romano & Brad Garrett May 22 for being so persistent in making his recent comeback happen.

“Went to Pechanga one saturday and played jackpot station amongst other games but mostly that game. I lost my $800 bank roll in no time. I was so bummed since I knew it was going to be a long hour plus drive home to Long Beach, and I had pretty much just got there. So I left and came home. It bugged me all night, I couldn’t even sleep. So when sunlight hit at around 5:45 am I got dressed and drove right back to pechanga. I was determind to win. Sat down played jackpot station and lost another 300 bucks.I was crushed. Walked back to the parking lot and began to drive away when my wife says “You know we have another hundred bucks we can play.” That’s all I needed to hear. I parked, sat back down at jackpot station and hit a bonus right away and walked out of the casino with $800 bucks. I know it wasn’t all I lost but I felt sooo awesome. Now that’s a comeback story. literally. hah” - Eric J.

Pauline won a Pechanga gift card for her story, which we simply had to recognize as an honorable mention:

“Lost my money, was waiting for my husband to finish up his. Was standing against a Hoot Loot machine looking at an ATM machine wondering if I should pull more money out, I did. Got a hundred dollar bill put into the Hoot Loot machine, selected 20 lines $1 each, hit the spin button, the machine went black!! OMG!

I thought it stole my money and was wondering how I was going to explain this to my husband, but like 15 seconds later it said JACKPOT on the screen. $4000 beautiful dollars! Went home not saying a word to my husband, until he came out of the shower and saw all the money covering the bed!! You should have seen the look on his face!!” - Pauline L.

From $100 to $4,000

“We were at TI 2000 Super Bowl Sun. after the game and about $150 left out of $1500 from a fun weekend, we thought one more $100 then off to bed to drive home Mon. we went over to the $5 machines and dropped it in, playing one coin at a time hit for $1000 my husband and I were with a couple of friends so I gave them some money, the four of us were playing the whole row of $5 machines, It seemed every one we played hit… CRAZY!!! We walked away with $4000 so then on our way to bed one last stop at the roulette one more number can’t remember the number but hit for $600. It was like Lady Luck was sitting right on my shoulder……Once in a life…..awww I hope not” - Tammy C.

From $20 to $9,576.17

“Went to ENCORE in Vegas 4 months after they had opened. @ 5am my husband and i called it a night cuz we lost a lot at the Roulette table. I decided to stop by @ a penny machine with a max bet of $1.80. It had a progressive of $9,576.17.

I put a $20.00 and the first time i bet.. got the JACKPOT BABY! the funny thing is that we were so tired that we didn’t noticed that we had won. I kept trying to bet but it wouldn’t until the attend said that we had won… best ever! So really it’s all about luck and timing!” - Kathryn Serafin

From $200 to $5,000 (at Pechanga no less)

“Went out to Pechanga with my wife for dinner and some gambling….bought in the Craps table for $100 each, wasn’t going to hot…at one point we had all monies on the table then cards kept hitting 4, we kept pressing the bets we ended up with a $200 bet on 4 and we went home with $5000” - John C.

From $40 in poker to a streak of awesome

“I had 40 dollars left…I went to the poker room and played a 1-2 no limit game….down to 8 bucks….I went all in with a 5/7 off suit made a straight..won that pot…THEN after that 2 hours later im up 1300 dollars!!!!! I LOVE PECHANGA!!!! WOOP WOOP!!!! On top of that I got High hand of the hour two times!!! For an extra 150 bucks each!!! I had four of a kind 8’s and A STRAIGHT FLUSH!!! It was amazing, the most insane lucky streak I have ever had!!!!” - Adrianne H.

Pechanga Poker presents ‘Call or Fold,’ a Facebook & Twitter contest/game that asks what you would do in certain poker situations.

If your choice turns out to be the right move once the hand is played out, you’ll be entered to win a $50 Pechanga dining gift card.

Here is this week’s situation:

The chip leader is first to act in front of the Big Blind (under the gun). The chip leader raises 1/4 of his stack and you look at your cards to find pocket aces. 

You decide to smooth call in hopes of enticing additional callers behind you, but everyone else folds and you go “heads up” to the flop.

The flop is: 4-clubs, 7-spades, Q-hearts

The chip leader immediately pushes all-in…

Call or Fold? Submit your entry via Facebook or Twitter. Or discuss strategy in the comments area below.

Contest rules: 1 entry per person (one network only). No purchase necessary. Hand is played out and winner is announced one hour following start of contest.

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