Happy in Marriage and Beats

No, not beatings.  Beats.  This is not a story about domestic abuse.  It is a story about helping out your wife and profiting in the process.

Iowans Don and Donna Ditto (how cute), who just celebrated thirty years of wedded bliss, made one of their many treks to a Mississippi River casino boat in mid-August to play poker.  As they don’t like to square off against each other, they plunked down chips at separate tables and went to work.  Players were dwindling at Donna’s $5/$10 Omaha high-low game, but wanting to keep playing, she asked her husband if he would fill in a seat.  He obliged.

In the back of people’s minds at the Isle of Capri casino where the Ditto’s played that night was the bad beat jackpot.  The casino takes an extra dollar from any pot of twenty dollars or more to fund it, and on that night, the jackpot was up to around $16,000.  To claim the jackpot, one player must lose a hand holding quad tens or better.  The player who loses the hand (and thus wins the jackpot) receives half of the jackpot, the winner of the hand takes a quarter, and the rest of the players in the hand split the rest.

So, after some time, Don and Donna were in a pot together, which one would suppose would not be unusual, since they were seated at the same table.  Donna was dealt a nice Omaha high-low hand of A-2-4-J.  Don had a decent hand of A-5-10-K, with the A-10 suited in spades. 

The flop was interesting.  Q-J-J, two spades.  Thus, Donna flopped trips and Don flopped the nut flush/royal flush draw.  Don bet and saw both Donna and another woman call.

The turn was stupendous: the King of spades, nailing down the rare royal flush for Don.  Knowing that there was still a chance for a bad beat jackpot hand, he checked, just on the off chance that someone holding a Jack might fold to his bet.  Of course, there was only one card in the deck that would produce the jackpot situation, but to Don, it was worth sacrificing a $10 bet or two to have the long-shot come in.  The other two women checked behind him.

And on the river, the miracle Jack appeared, giving Donna quads.  For whatever reason, the married couple did not get into a raising battle on the river, but when everyone saw their cards, the table exploded in cheers.  For doing nothing, everyone else in the hand won $657 each, while the Dittos combined for $12,000.

It’s not often that it is fun to tell a bad beat story, but when it’s a doozy like this, it needs to be told.