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The ‘Poker Brat’ Phil Hellmuth was making headlines all over the Poker world yesterday. It started when Hellmuth announced he would no longer play in the World Series of Poker Main Event because Phil thinks the schedule isn’t worth it and he’s calling for change. 2023 WSOP Main Event champ Daniel Weinman had something to say about that, joking that playing 10 days for 12 hours a day for *only $10 million* just isn’t worth it…
Later in the day, one of Phil Hellmuth’s videos on X (née Twitter) went viral. Hellmuth was playing poker at the Rivers Casino in Chicagoland when the casino’s Bad Beat Jackpot was triggered.
Famous for meltdowns when hands don’t go his way, this is the rare instance where Phil was able to sit back and watch a truly sickening bad beat without being involved in the action himself. One would think that hitting Quad Queens would be enough to take down a hand in Hold ‘Em but not this hand…
While I am signing, a ruckus broke out! A peaceful happy ruckus! What a time to lose a pot w FOUR QUEENS! @RiversCasinoCHI #POSITIVITY pic.twitter.com/1PAgbaRLtD
— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) February 20, 2025
The dealer says the ‘bad beat just hit on the river’ for a cool $320,000. That is, of course, referring to the casino’s bad beat jackpot and not there being $320K worth of chips in the pot.
This sickening bad beat at the Rivers Casino in Chicagoland was 4 Queens losing to a Straight Flush. The odds of 4 of a Kind losing to a Straight Flush in Hold ‘Em are approximately 1 in ever 2.7 million hands… Play enough poker and you see some unbelievable things happen at the table.
Phil Hellmuth was there signing autographs as a guest of the casino. Gamblers and poker players were astonished that not only had the bad beat jackpot been triggered but as it was happening the one and only Phil Hellmuth was standing there narrating it all on X.
While there is no Bad Bead Jackpot specific page for the Rivers Casino Des Plaines location, there is one for their Portsmouth casino. On that page, they list the payouts as: 40% of Bad Beat Jackpot to losing hand, 30% of Bad Beat Jackpot to winning hand, and 30% of Bad Beat Jackpot equally divided among the balance of the seated players on the game who received cards at the beginning of the hand.
For the Bad Beat Jackpot to be triggered there must have been at least 4 players dealt cards, a pot over $10, and the hand must go to a showdown. Since all of those requirements were met, the person who actually lost the hand with quad queens won the most money and they did it all while Phil Hellmuth was narrating the action. Unreal.