It’s all change for the Bad Beat Jackpot on the MPN (www.thempn.eu), but not before one player walks away from the tables with a mind melting, monolithic mound of moolah! The jackpot currently stands at over €793,000 – the highest it has ever been on the MPN and the second largest in online poker history. The player who has their monster hand cracked will take home at least €262,500 – and the jackpot is expected to hit at any minute!
Furthermore, on the 19th March, the MPN Bad Beat Jackpot will experience a radical overhaul, offering players who choose to take part an easy chance at frequent paydays. While previously, players would have to sit at designated Bad Beat Jackpot tables, the MPN’s patent-pending system allows players at any €0.10/€0.20 or higher Hold’em table to opt in and out of the promotion at any time. Players who opt in pay just 2 cents per hand to participate in the network-wide jackpot, and the payouts extend to all opted in players across that stake.
The changes don’t end there! Any four of a kind beaten will trigger the jackpot, as long as both hole cards are used, which is significantly lower than the industry standard of four of a kind 8s or better. The jackpot will trigger even if both players involved in the winning hand are not opted in, thus ensuring payouts are frequent and making this jackpot the easiest to win in the industry. Finally, no administration fee will be taken from the jackpot, meaning that every cent contributed to the jackpot ends up back in players’ pockets.
Lydia Melton, Head of Network Games at Microgaming, says: “The trend in the industry has been to remove jackpots altogether, which is a shame. Poker is a skill game, but even poker players like a shot at a jackpot prize every now and then. With the introduction of our new Bad Beat Jackpot, we solve the problem of liquidity segmentation seen in other Bad Beat Jackpots, and make the whole promotion accessible to all MPN players. More frequent payouts, easier wins and no admin fee; the industry has never before seen such an efficient and effective method of player rewards.”
Steve Cutler, Head of Poker at Unibet, adds: “Bad Beat Jackpots are long proven as a powerful acquisition tool, but at the same time restricting the Bad Beat pool to particular tables can diminish its value, resulting in split liquidity and less frequent payouts. We expect the ability to offer a Bad Beat payday on all our tables to significantly enhance our offering and increase player satisfaction and lifetime.”
The mechanics for the new Bad Beat Jackpot were agreed by members of the Network Management Board (NMB), the industry’s first operator and poker network board. The NMB recently met for its 6th quarterly meeting, during which it agreed the development roadmap and network strategies for the coming months.
The introduction of the new Bad Beat Jackpot coincides with the tenth anniversary of Microgaming’s Poker software, which launched on March 18th 2003 and has become one of the industry’s most prominent networks.
For more information on the MPN, visit the network website at www.thempn.eu.
