I'm pretty sure at the Borgata, as long as you haven't missed your blinds, you're automatically included in the table share. And, imo, that sounds fair because everyone then has the chance to go to the bathroom, have a smoke, stretch their legs etc. and not be penalized for it if the jackpot hits.

If anyone does have a missed blind button, well then they're sol.

If there wasn't such a policy, then I'd probably cut the guy in on it as long as he wasn't an habitual walker, but I would only give him a piece and not what his full share would've been.

At MD Live!, if you haven't missed a blind you get paid even if you weren't in the hand in question.

Sorry buddy, sucks to be you. I've seen people throw some dollars (10 - 50) to the poor fella, but a full share? No.

why would he be heartbroken? If he was dealt into the hand, the bad beat wouldn't have hit.

This is also true when someone gets a table change, and then a little while later his old seat wins the big portion of the jackpot. I lol at these people because there is no way it would have hit if he stayed at the table, even if the game remained full. This is because people limp and fold different hands preflop and any change would alter the order of the cards.

This did happen in my poker room a couple years ago, a young kid who no one liked because of his attitude was away with a missed blind button and just came back too late and it hit. No one would pay him anything (maybe one player offered $200 but nowhere near a table share).

If we are going to start paying the guy who was away from the table, we should also pay the guy who folded 33 UTG a few rounds ago with that same deck, and the guy who raised 27o and lost all his money a half hour ago because it wouldn't have hit without those plays.

Or as I say you should send me a share of every bad beat jackpot because had I been there it wouldn't have hit.

It depends how much those hundreds or thousands of dollars means to you.
If you're the type of nit who feels like you're entitled to the BBJ after paying the rake, you should keep it and live your miserable life forever alone. But for most people, they are just as happy with a $778 payday as they are with an $878 payday, so throwing an otherwise nice guy a bone is something to do. And don't forget ...


... this is not true. There are plenty of people in this thread who have said they'd pay someone out of their own share (that is, the casino won't include the lobbier per strict rules but some people at thw table will just give him money). And IME (n = 2), you can expect about 1/3 people to offer you something solely out of friendship (i.e., you'll get about 1/5-1/4 of an actual table share).

Above a certain level, the BBJ is small relative to your expected lifetime winnings, and the player pools are small enough so that you'll actually become friends with some people. If you want to grind 1/2 NL or 3/6 LHE for the rest of your life, clutching a $100 chip like it's the goddamn One Ring, suit yourself. The BBJ is a rare event, so what you do in these rare events both (a) matters very little to your long term winrate (* see below), and (b) sticks in peoples' minds for a long time.

* Note from above: I liken it to flopping a royal flush. Let's say you decide to open fold every time you flop a royal flush. Terrible, horrible EV move. But in terms of your long term win rate, it doesn't matter, because you will flop a royal flush so rarely.

Since Leo wasn't there to buy you a shrimp cocktail, did anyone at least buy you a taco?

I think you are making my point. You are saying 1 in 3 people are going to give me something. So why should I give at everyone in this situation. 2/3 of the people are freerolling me. If this whole thing is important identify the people who would give to you and give to them when it happens to them. The easiest way to do this accurately is talk to them ahead of time and make an agreement to do it.


BTW someone like me is probably getting paid less often then others simply because I WOULD NEVER ASK FOR ANYTHING. So Marty McNit misses his and comes back and says "you guys should pay me" .... might cause someone like you to offer him some money. But a guy like me who comes back to the table and doesn't say a word about getting paid is less likely to be offered money. (yes I know there are some people maybe you are one of them who might speak up and suggest it but there are probably more who would pay if it was suggested ... yet wouldn't suggest it on their own) Yet you feel I'm the nit for not wanting to pay others.

[/quote]Above a certain level, the BBJ is small relative to your expected lifetime winnings, and the player pools are small enough so that you'll actually become friends with some people. If you want to grind 1/2 NL or 3/6 LHE for the rest of your life, clutching a $100 chip like it's the goddamn One Ring, suit yourself. The BBJ is a rare event, so what you do in these rare events both (a) matters very little to your long term winrate (* see below), and (b) sticks in peoples' minds for a long time.
[/QUOTE]


I don;t think this applies to me. I am not a grinder and I am not trying to make a living playing poker (I would have to live in a cardbard box if I did). When i play I play for recreation. But I am prepared to lose.

To me the reason I wouldn't pay other players is basically for the same reason I don't walk around handing out money to other people away from the table.

Money has value to me. I'm not a money hoarder, But I don't just throw it away either.

I do give to charity .... but i choose the charities I give to based on what makes me happy. I feel good when I contribute money to the local food bank so I do it. I don;t feel the same happiness about giving to some other charities so I don't give to them.

If It makes you happy to give the money to a fellow player who was away from the table when the jackpot hit ... then by all means give it to them. But you should do it because you want to ... not because you feel they are entitled to it, or because you feel obligated, or because you are living under the belief that everyone else there would do it for you.


As for me. I'm not giving you a share. I'll tip the dealer. And my windfall may generate a donation to a charity of my choice.

Oh and since I'm not a very good poker player ..... you may win it from me.

Nope.

I volunteer to pay him a share if he paid his blinds for this orbit and he's not a casino walker regular. I don't want to penalize someone who's bladder called but I don't want to reward someone who is there just for comps and takes up an empty seat.

If it becomes contentious, go with the table flow is probably +EV if you play there often. Actions regarding the BBJ get talked about a lot.

But I'm keepin' the fur coat.

I've done this, on a table change, I make a deal that if it hits on the table I'm leaving they give me a buy-in, if It gets hit over on my new table, same deal.

As for bathroom etc, because people at this casino know me and I'm generally liked, I'll go along with what the table does.

Except for 2 other specific regs... because screw those guys.

If guy is spending his potential AAs on walking, outside the blinds, it's good enough for me. Effectively he's then a blinds paying machine.

I've spent some time thinking about this. Which is a lot like trying to decide how to spend lottery ticket winnings.

I might pay a guy out of my table share winnings if every other table share person at the table also did it (so we all got the same table share). And if the guy wasn't a professional BBJ walkabout (i.e., it really was just a quick break by somebody who plays otherwise).

But I wouldn't pay out of the bad beat hand or winning hand share because that amount isn't affected by how many other people are at the table.

And yes it wouldn't have happened if the guy was there but so what? Like somebody said before every time somebody gets up to take a break they aren't throwing everybody a penny because they are screwing up a potential jackpot hand...

I sat at a table once and didn't post. The table got quiet when a guy hit his straight flush and another guy had a set of Jacks on the turn. Not sure how we knew but we did. The guy sitting next to me announces that I am getting a table share if the jackpot hits. I replied that I wouldn't accept. And the jackpot didn't hit. Specifically because I said I wouldn't accept a table share. I really screwed things up for everybody. Not sure where this leaves me on this issue. I think I have to spend a lot more time thinking about it.

After the jackpot hits, everyone could easily come to a quick decision as to whether or not they're going to cut the guy in on it or not, or perhaps, decide that $50 per man would be a nice gesture and a token to just say: "Hey man, sorry you weren't here but we have decided to give you ~$500 anyway. "

Let's say the table share was 2k a man. Electing to take $50 out of your share to make someone feel less aggravated is not that big a deal. I'm not saying to cut him in entirely, but if everyone agreed to part with just a small fraction of their share, then so what? Unless the guy was a complete db, I don't see why I wouldn't throw him a bone. But all this stuff is always so debatable because there really is no correct answer. I don't fault Psandman for his take on it and his justifications are completely understandable. We all have different views regarding value and what that value means to us. Granted, I don't like to just throw $50 away either, but in this situation, I would feel ok with it.

If the BBJ is high and someone gets up it is required to say "let's hit the bad beat while he's gone." Player must still be within earshot.

This is pretty different. For a BBJ, the number of people who feel like they deserve a share is limited. Of course you're not going to give a "share" to everyone in the casino, or even to everyone who asks.

I don't think there's anything wrong with not paying, but I also don't think there's anything wrong with paying. It's not a chump move.

Where I regularly play there is sort of an unwritten rule that if someone is away from the table (but has been playing) and a BBJ hits then that person is paid out a full table share. Frequently, one of the older regulars will go out of their way to explain this to anyone just joining the game who is a new face. It's not uncommon to consistently hear "We got a deal on the bad beat, you understand?" before someone leaves the game to take a quick break or when a new player joins the game. I probably hear some variation of this many times every session.

To my knowledge there haven't been any issues and the regulars love to talk about the bad beat, so I'd assume I'd hear of a controversy if one happened. However, I've played about 1,000 hours in that room over the past 18 months and I've yet to be in the card room, let alone at a table, for a BBJ. So who knows.

In my opinion, I just go along to get along. I don't see a problem with it and the rationale most of the regulars use is "If he was dealt in, the cards would be different, and there wouldn't have been a jackpot." I honestly can't remember the last time I was playing in a game at this particular casino and I didn't hear one of the older regulars make sure the whole table understands that there is a deal to pay an absentee player an even split of a table share. I've also never heard a new player (new face in the room) or another player object to that type of deal when it's brought up either.

In spirit the idea of a deal is there to protect a guy from losing out on the BBJ share while he's taking a leak or whatever. I guess I could see controversy arriving when someone is taking a dinner break or 25+ minute break or whatever, and then returns and wants a table share. But, whatever, like I said I've never been in the room or at a table when a BBJ has hit.

I do play at a couple other rooms in the area where there isn't a culture of deal making and I rarely hear people talking about making a deal with the BBJ at those rooms. So in one of those rooms, I'd probably be less inclined to pay an absentee player unless the rest of the table wanted to (or it had been discussed prior). I'm not going to initiate conversation to pay that player, but, I certainly won't object to it either. I'd just go with the flow.

I'm pretty friendly and agreeable, it's just not something I worry about and I sort of trust things to work themselves out if I'm ever fortunate to be at the table for a BBJ.

I'd offer him a $50 comp at the Bellagio buffet. Basically a freeroll, since he'll most likely turn it down amidst loud ranting about theoretical monetary injuries.

Or what the others said about if I liked the guy or not.

If I'm friends or friendly with the guy, then yes. If he's a stranger who threw me a dollar or two to cover the BBJ drop that he won't be contributing to while he's away, then yes. Anyone else, no.

call me a nit if you want. the last place i'm giving a stranger money ever is in a casino.

you're right the hitting a bbj is rare. however once it hits where i got the money from is irrelevant.

people also love complaining about getting free money. unless they end up getting a full share 80% of them will just bitch anyway.

The argument at hand is that the second half of this quote is still an opinion.

Proponents will say "where you got the money from is not irrelevant--you have a civic/moral/blahblah duty to the man who gifted you this opportunity by relieving himself at that very moment in time when the planets aligned and the bladder of the magi signaled a miracle."

Opponents will say "as soon as that hand is tabled my life roll went up by the table share. I don't even have to tip the dealer. I've been paying the BBJ drop for XX years so I'm still not back to even yet. I'm a nit. I ask for what toppings are free at McDonalds and add all of them to my burger and none of those with a cost attached."

I don't know where I fall. If I dislike the bathroom visitor, I might tip the dealer $(Y>5) and the player $5 to hopefully show that while I value this person, the dealer, who had no hand in the bad beat, I value you, as the alleged bringer of luck, even less. Like the penny-under-the-glass waitress tip. It's cheaper to tip 0, but the amount really hammers the message home more than the absence of tip would.

If it's anybody else, I'm probably not donating to their case. Sorry guys!

i thought you only got tax forms at $600 ive seen some cardrooms do high hands at $599

If I knew the guy very well and he wasn't a dick, then likely I would give him a share out of my part regardless of what others might do. I likely would not volunteer anything to total strangers.

This definition of "nit" appears to be the same type of person who thinks someone making $100,000 isn't poor. If the nits only realized that I have to spend 90% of my money on cocaine and hookers, they'd realize that I'm poor.