[2Tone]

90% of my play is at the Golden Nugget () just south of Seattle, a five minute drive from my office.

Quads or better pay a jackpot of least $100, with separate prizes for each card value (meaning quad 6s might be at $148, quad kings at $112, etc). Both hole cards must play, but there is no minimum for the size of the pot. Before chopping (which is rare anyway), the SB will typically ask the BB if he “needs a caller” to potentially hit a jackpot.

The jackpot goes up each day until it is hit, at which point it resets back to $100. It doesn’t usually get above $300 or so. I’ve hit it three or four times over the past couple years.

For royal flushes, it starts at $1000, and is broken down by suit (meaning hearts pays a different amount than spades). They often hit $10k, but the current $23k for clubs is by far the highest anybody remembers it getting. The only time I ever hit a royal in live play was at the IP in Vegas , for which I was awarded a $75 restaurant credit, which still hangs in my office.

It’s all funded by a $2 jackpot drop on top of the standard 10%/$3 max rake. There is no bad beat jackpot.

The remainder of my local play is at a smaller place called Roxy’s. They also pay jackpots, but require a pot size of $10, and they reset to $50 instead of $100. But during the day and late-night hours they also have a gimmick called a “splash pot” where they add an extra $25 of house money to the first pot of the hour. Everyone calls of course, and sometimes the pot will be capped seven or eight handed pre-flop. I’m still trying to figure out if there is an optimal strategy for these splash pots.