The Trop’s bad beat jackpot has passed $500K, coming in at about $502,000 going into today’s play. And thanks to one of our sharper readers (thanks Allin), we’ve figured out why the rate of increase for the jackpot has slowed down noticeably.

Normally, the casino has a drop of about 70 percent towards its bad beat jackpot, 20 percent for its reserve jackpot (to be used to replenish the jackpot after a hit) and 10 percent for its 38 Special Jackpot (more on that later).

However, the casino changed that drop at about $300K. The bad beat jackpot is now getting only 20 percent of the bad beat rake, with 70 percent going to the reserve.

Trop officials say that with the jackpot this high, they know players will be coming to the room. Rather than worry about setting a record, they want to ensure that their bad beat will be in good shape when this jackpot hits, keeping the bad beat fun going.

If the jackpot were to hit today, the jackpot would be reset to about $200K, Trop officials said.

Still, even with the low rake, the jackpot is gaining about $2K a day.

While you might argue that going for a record would be a better move for the casino, you can understand their thinking. With a 40-table room, they’re already packed 24/7. And the last thing you want to see is the jackpot get depleted.

For example, a series of hits at the Taj Mahal recently dropped their jackpot to less that $40K (it’s climbed back up to $80K).

So anyway, play has not slowed down at the Trop, but there were a couple of weekends when the jackpot seemed to be gaining better than $2K a day. Maybe that was just wishful thinking (and bad math) on our part.

Speaking of wishful thinking, we mentioned the 38 Special Jackpot at the Tropicana. That jackpot pays if a player holds a three and an eight in the hole, hits the two pair, but loses to quads.

I have to admit, I was one of the skeptics about this jackpot and wondered if it would ever hit. Well, it did.

The details haven’t’ been released yet (we’re working on them) but the 38 Special hit for $59K within the last few days, a $39,000 to $17,000 split between the two players (no split with other players at the table).

Needless to say, Trop officials feel a little vindicated by the hit.

And in a last bit of bad beat news, The Caesars Entertainment bad beat jackpot hit Sunday for $207,266 at Caesars poker room.

In this case, two unidentified players (maybe they’re in the CIA) had dueling straight flushes, easily meeting the hand minimum.

The winner/loser received  $63,957 while the hand winner got $42,235. The 131 players in the four Caesars rooms received $791 each.

The hit came at 6am, keeping up a trend of bad beats hitting at off hours.

By the way, the Caesars jackpot last hit Aug. 10 for $366K, just over three weeks ago, so this is another example of why casino’s keep a reserve. The jackpot was reset to $111,000.

Tags: Atlantic City bad beat jackpots, Atlantic City Weekly Poker headlines, Caesars Combined Bad Beat Jackpot, Tropicana poker

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