Poker crowd looking for losing hand at Taj Mahal

Every table was full Wednesday evening in the poker room at the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort. Almost as soon as players tired out or lost their chips, there was someone waiting to take their place.

On a normal Wednesday night, even in the summer, the room would be about one-third full, poker room manager Tom Gitto said.

“(Now) every day is Saturday,” even in the wee hours of the morning, Gitto said. “We have people working seven days now. It’s just getting enough staff in here to keep up with demand.”

The reason for that demand was flashed on a video screen above the cashier’s cage. The “bad beat” jackpot stood at $607,734.

For those unfamiliar with poker jargon, a “bad beat” is when a player loses a strong hand to an opponent who has one that’s even better. Many poker players relish sharing their bad-beat stories with anyone who will listen.

To qualify for the jackpot, the losing hand must be a four of a kind or higher, and both the winner and loser must use both their hole cards to make the hand, Gitto said. The holder of the losing hand gets half the money, the winner gets 25 percent — plus the pot — and the other 25 percent is divided among the other players at the table who were dealt into that round. The jackpot builds with each hand dealt that does not produce a bad-beat winner.

Only Texas Hold ‘Em games qualify for the jackpot, which means people who prefer other forms of poker are abandoning their favorite games for a chance at the big bucks, Gitto said.

The previous record bad-beat jackpot in the resort was $553,958, and was won in January by Steven Gedney, 52, of Dover, Del. at Caesars Atlantic City.

The hopes of hitting the current jackpot led to some extreme behavior among the players.

Jose Gomez, of New York, said he came to the Taj Mahal for the holiday weekend, and was scheduled to go home Mondayy.

“I called my job and said I’m not coming to work,” Gomez said, adding that he’s been playing poker 18 to 20 hours a day.

Gomez said he had a ticket to fly to Florida on Wednesday for his grandson’s third birthday but changed his reservation to go Friday so he can play until the jackpot hits.

Nadine Dorn, of Mays Landing, said she played for 24 hours straight over the weekend. She arrived at the poker room again at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday and didn’t plan to leave until 3 or 4 a.m. today.

“But if I hit, I’m leaving,” Dorn said. “I’m going to clear out this whole room.”

If she hits the jackpot, Dorn said she would give some of the winnings to her church, and then take about 10 of her favorite relatives to Hawaii. She would save the rest, and maybe even ask mogul Donald Trump for investment advice.

Bill Flynn, of Pittman, fresh off his shift as a poker dealer at the Showboat Casino Hotel next door, sat down at a table and got ready to play.

“I’m going to hit it right now,” Flynn said. “I’m definitely winning. I leave for Mexico next Thursday. I need spending money.”

Flynn said he has been playing almost every day after work and on his days off since the jackpot hit $400,000.

Jack Joskowitz, of Bayonne, who won the last bad-beat jackpot at the Taj Mahal on April 3, was back in the poker room Wednsday evening, hoping the gods would favor him once again.

Joskowitz said he is “without a question” playing for the jackpot, and his wife was playing too.

If he wins again, he’ll just continue what he’s been doing, “just live on it and relax,” Joskowitz said. The April 3 jackpot was $317,000.

As the jackpot grows, the players’ desire to win gets even stronger.

Some players are reluctant to leave the table even to answer a call of nature, Gitto said. They’ll wait until supervisors come to fill the dealer’s chip tray before taking a break, for fear of missing out on the winning hand.

“We’ve even had players purposely spill a drink so they could run to the bathroom” while the mess is cleaned up, Gitto said.

Gitto said many are staying up all night, and sometimes the dealers have to wake them up to play their cards.

“If they get up, it means they have no more money,” Gitto said.

Source: www.pressofatlanticcity.com