the Beats go on

The bad beat has been hovering all around me the past couple of weeks, not in the lowercase sense (i.e. "Holy crap, that was a bad beat") but rather in a bigger sense. A Bad Beat way, jackpot included.

Two weeks ago Caesars in AC had just paid off a table to the tune of 27k when someone's quad 6s got snuffed by a straight flush. Then, last Friday, halfway through my basketball/poker session, the excited voices rose to a new decibel and then exploded. Turns out that quad 7s were way ahead of trip Qs (or Queens full of 7s actually) until the river when the final lady showed up to the party and netted the loser a cool 20k. The winner pocketed 10k and the other 8 players split about 10k.

These Beats always lead to a discussion among players and dealers on the appropriate amounts to kick back to the dealer. In the latter instance above, the kid threw back a grand to the dealer, even though his buddies were telling him to tip half that amount. Personally, I think it is up to the discretion of the player, each case is different, each dealer is different, the player's personal circumstances might dictate a little more or a little less. Everyone has a different opinion.

Either way, it's a dilemma that I hope to be able to write about in a practical sense at some point in the future.