The Taj Mahal will once again play host to the National Deaf Poker Tour on Friday, Nov. 4 and Saturday, Nov. 6.  Interpreters will be on hand to help sign between players and dealers

The National Deaf Poker Tour (NDPT) was founded in 2006.  The mission was to find the best deaf poker players and match them against each other in hopes that someone will represent the NDPT on the big stage at WSOP, WPT, USPC or other major poker tournaments.  Although some deaf players have cashed in on these tournaments, no one has “hit it big” yet.

Players will also be invited to attend an exclusive closed screening of the motion picture movie, The Hammer.  Screenings are at 4pm and 7pm on Friday, November 4 and 5pm and 9pm on Saturday, November 5.

The Hammer is a true story about Matt Hamill, a deaf UFC fighter. The film is about the first deaf wrestler’s journey to win a National Collegiate Championship. Raised among those with the ability to hear, Matt finds himself no less an outsider amidst the deaf community. But through sheer determination, he turns what could be a disability into an asset and in the process serves as an inspiration for both those who can hear and those who cannot.

Here’s the schedule for events:

Bad beat mania broke out big time this week in Atlantic City with early returns showing that somewhere near $900,000 in monies were paid out in three days, including today. We haven’t been able to sure up all the details from this bevy of hits, but here’s what we know.

The Tropicana bad beat jackpot, the biggest in the city, has finally hit for about $543,000, more than one month after topping $500K. The hit came Thursday, Oct. 13, at a $2, $4, $6 limit game.

Exact details haven’t been released, but the jackpot winner, Alan H. Silvani

Trop bad beat jackpot winner Silvani

from Toms River, won more than $217,000. The hand winner won $108,500 and $27,100 went to eight other players.

Like we said, this ends several months of a high level of play at the about 40-table Tropicana room since the jackpot first hit $300,000 in the summer and is by far a record payout for the Trop.

“Actually, I’m kind of sorry to see it hit,” says Bruce Pearlman, poker room manager for the Trop. “I mean I’m happy for the winners and sure, we were working hard, but that’s what we do. The room was full, the players were happy, the dealers were happy. That’s the point of the jackpot, to build some excitement.”

One strategy that seems to have worked was the low rake for the jackpot since it hit about $300K. That’s allowed the casino to reset its jackpot at $241,554, already the second highest in the city behind The Borgata.

“By Christmas, I’d like to see it back up there again,” says Pearlman.

The Taj Mahal’s bad beat jackpot hit Wednesday for $200,276.56.

Quad fives lost to quad eights (remember, the Taj has the old-fashioned minimum of quad deuces) and a guy named Tom Miller won $100,138.50. The hand winner won $50,069.25 and seven other players at the table won $7,152.75.

At the moment, the Taj bad beat is at $52K which makes you think there may have been yet another hit in between Wednesday and today (these things usually reset at about $100K). We’re checking.

Finally, the Caesars Entertainment combined bad beat jackpot hit today (Oct. 14). It’s the seventh hit of the combined since early August and the second hit since Oct. 3.  The Jackpot was $143,593. It’s now at $103,912.

The minimum hand was set at quad 10s. The winning hand was four  queens beating four jacks, The bad beat winner got $43,409 and the winning hand was paid $29,150 20. There were 111 players in the four Harrah’s rooms and each was paid $631.

So whew. That’s $885,000 in bad beat money for sure, and possibly another about $100,000 if The Taj did see a second hit.

And that’s since Wednesday. Today’s Friday.

There’s a reason the bad beat jackpots are worth following.

Meanwhile the only untouched bad beat jackpot is at The Borgata, which is now at $285,000 and had a hit on its small bad beat ($50K) last week,

You gotta figure its due.

There’s a new tournament in town, and it just might lead to a showdown between two A.C. casinos come November.

The Borgata has scheduled a fifth major tournament for the year, The Borgata Fall Open, from Nov. 9-23. Usually, the Borgata Open, which starts Wednesday as been the de facto fall seasonal open the casino runs (even though it’s technically held at the end of summer) .

No event schedule has been released for the fall open, but Borgata officials say that the dates fit nicely into the casino’s schedule.

However. The folks at the Taj Mahal may not agree. The casino usually holds its independent United State Poker Championship in November. But this year, no dates have been announced and it’s not even clear that the Taj will hold the event, which has been struggling without a major sponsorship such as the World Poker Tour or the World Series of Poker.

Of course, the Borgata’s seasonal opens (they now have all four, winter, spring summer and fall) aren’t sponsored either. Only the Borgata Open is a WPT event.

The Borgata is no stranger to counter-programming other casino’s events. Last year, for example, the casino outdrew the Taj during the U.S. Poker Championship with a $250,000 guaranteed Deepstack event.

We’ll keep an eye on this, but the town might not be big enough for both of them.

We got some information from the Taj Mahal about some upcoming poker promotions and we’re just so glad they’re talking to us about anything,  we’re rushing it out.

Basically, poker players at the Taj this fall can win some extra cash through football picks, though to get the $1 million grand prize you have to be pretty good, picking at least 204 out of 245 games correctly. That’s better than 80 percent.

If you can pick football games at that percentage, really, poker should just be a sideline.

Anyway, here’s the rundown on the promotions from the Taj Mahal:

Kickoff this football season at Trump Taj Mahal,

Trump One Card holders will have their chance to win thousands in cash and prizes this fall. The first two promotions, including the $1,000,000 Taj Poker Football Challenge and the Football Game Day Millions Giveaway, are open to all Trump One Card holders who have an active poker rating on that day. The $30,000 Pigskin Payoff promotion is open to all Trump One Card holders. (more…)

Here’s some details on the latest bad beat jackpot hit at the Taj Mahal, which hit for $414,989 at 9:40am Wednesday (July 13) morning.

That’s a nice size jackpot and paid the winner, who apparently is refusing to go public, $207,494.

The winner, which the casino is calling Mr. X ended up with quad 10s, but lost when a river 10 also gave Robert Jackson of Galloway a Royal Flush. Jackson wins $103,747 and eight remaining players won $12,968 each.

The game was a $1-$2 No Limit.

The quad 10 loss would have made any minimum for a bad beat jackpot in the city, but at the Taj, you only need quad deuces.

Our hats are off to the Cockeysville Patch, which scored a great interview with amateur poker player Walter Alexander Ayers, who scored the winning hand on Sunday’s monster bad beat jackpot hit at the Taj Mahal.

Ayers (front)

Ayers royal flush sent down Jay R. Marlapudi’s quad kings, finally hitting the $668,141 jackpot on Sunday. Ayers took home 25 percent of the jackpot or $167,035.25.

Ayers, of Cockeysville Md. (which until now we thought was a made up name) tells the paper (in an apparent lunchtime interview judging from the clip) that the hit was the first time he’s ever made a royal flush and wipes out about $27,000 in losses over the last several years.

He also says something we suspected. If Marlapudi (who won $335,070.50) hadn’t slow played his quad kings on the turn with a $50 bet, Ayers would have folded. Instead, Ayers hit a 10 of hearts on the river and the rest was just money for everybody.

Anyway he tells it like only a poker player can in this clip. You can read the Cockeysville Patch story here.

The Taj Mahal bad beat jackpot hit at 2:40pm Sunday, just shy of setting a new record, but still paid a 25-year-old Pa. man an amazing $335,070.50.

The  jackpot hit for $668,141, about $4,000 less than the record $672,115 set in June.

Still we doubt Jay R. Marlapudi, of Trevose Pa. cares much about the record as he takes home the second biggest bad beat jackpot in the city’s history, and probably anywhere.

Walter Alexander Ayers, of Cockeysville Md, was the hand winner and received $167,035.25. The seven remaining players at the table split the remaining  $167,035.25, good for $23,862.18 each.

The hit came on a $1, $2, no limit game.

Marlapudi had pocket kings on the hand and it looks like Ayers had jack, queen, both hearts.

The flop came Kh, Ah, 6s, leaving Ayers on the draw and Marlapudi with three kings. In a $1, $2, game, Marlapudi clearly couldn’t chase Ayers out as he hit a king of spades on the turn. The river was a 10 of hearts, making Ayers’ royal and both players rich men.

The Taj bad beat jackpot is back down to $172,000 today.

Marlapudi (left) and the Taj's Tom Gitto with the big check

Usually, we’d have to call this a pretty normal weekend at the city’s poker rooms, with no special tournament action scheduled. But with the Taj Mahal bad beat jackpot now hitting $641,209, there will be nothing normal about the weekend.

The jackpot is already the second highest ever for the city and should easily pass the $670,000 record jackpot set in June if it makes it to Monday.

We’ve been posting about this daily, so there’s not much left to say other than the potential winner of the jackpot (you know, the one who loses the bad beat) is looking at north of $320,000.

As for the rest of the bad beats in the city (where there should be plenty of room at the tables) The Caesars combined bad beat was at $297,461 with quad nines as the minimum. The Borgata’s full bad beat is at $252,280 (quad 10s a minimum) and $50,000 for the small bad beat (quad deuces to nines). Meanwhile, the Tropicana’s bad beat has climbed to $286,000, which is pretty good for their room.

In fact, it’s been a few weeks since any bad beat hit in the city.

Seems like someone is due.

The Taj Mahal bad beat jackpot seems to be gaining about $10,000 a day and stood at $633,352 going into Thursday’s play. That’s up about $10K from Wednesday morning.

On line at the Taj poker room

You can expect it to average more than that if it survives the weekend (last weekend, Friday to Saturday, it picked up $35K) so we should be looking at a new record by Monday. The old record is $672,155 set at the Taj in June 2010,

Of course, somebody could actually hit the thing before that happens. The Taj minimum bad beat hand is just quad deuces.

For the moment, however, it seems unstoppable.

By the way, the picture today is a slight approximation.

Praying for pocket pairs at the Taj

The Taj Mahal bad beat jackpot picked up another $9,000 (actually, almost $10K) over Tuesday bringing it to $623,742 going into this morning’s play. The Taj, as you’d expect, says the play in its room is now constant 24/7 as the jackpot continues to climb.

All it’s going to take for somebody to get a better than $310,000 payday is for a minimum hand of quad deuces to get tripped up. So far, however, it just ain’t happening and the Taj and city bad beat jackpot record of $672,115 set in June could be challenged this weekend.