What happens when you have a once-in-a-lifetime experience twice in one night?
Well, if you are Battle Creek's Kenny Tallent, you become $213,712 richer and you have a story to tell that many people would take bets on, saying it can't be true.
Tallent was on his way to Detroit to play poker at the Motor City Casino. Driving on I-94, past FireKeepers Casino near Battle Creek, Tallent saw a flash in the sky that "made his heart drop." By the time he reached Detroit, he had learned from friends and news reports that he had seen the meteor that fell in Michigan last Tuesday — obviously, an experience he had never had before.
"I remember thinking, what are the odds of that. Maybe it would be good luck," Tallent said.
Little did he know that he was about to beat the odds again.
Hitting the tables at Motor City Casino, Tallent later became part of the largest 'bad beat' jackpot in U.S.history.
Playing Texas Hold 'em poker, Tallent came up with four queens. His four-of-a-kind was good enough to beat a similar hand at the table as a man from Oxford, Michigan, had four 3s.
One four-of-a-kind beating another four-of-a-kind is known as a bad beat in poker rooms. At the Motor City Casino, the loser in that scenario actually turns out to be a winner by getting the 'bad beat' jackpot. The jackpot, which comes from money pulled from every hand of poker played at the casino, had grown to a record $1,068,590.80.
At over a million dollars, Motor City Casino says it is the largest "bad beat" jackpot in U.S. history. The player with the losing hand in the bad beat gets 40 percent of the jackpot — $427,452.52. Tallent, who won the hand, earned 20 percent of the jackpot — $213,712.76.The other four players at the table won $106,856.28 each.
"That kind of bad beat, with the kind of jackpot they have at Motor City, is kind of rare. I guess I hope it's not a once-in-a-lifetime thing because I'd love to have it happen to me again, but it is rare," Tallent said. "Seeing a meteor is pretty rare, too, I would think. Actually, playing as much poker as I do, I guess seeing a meteor is probably more rare."
Tallent, a 2007 graduate of Lakeview High School and a tables dealer at FireKeepers Casino, was actually going to the Motor City Casino because of the outside chance of something like this happening.
"The news of that bad beat jackpot was getting so high, it was drawing a lot of players. There has been a lot of money in the poker room there lately because of that. Plus, it's probably the best poker room in the state. They take really good care of their players there," Tallent said. "But I never thought, in a million years, I would be a part of it. Still can't believe it."
Tallent hopes to take part of his winnings and play in the World Series of Poker this year in Las Vegas, "always watched it on TV and it has always been a dream of mine," he said.
As for the actual hand, Tallent won that with the four queens, but the pot was much smaller than the bad beat jackpot, "I won the pot, but I guess I wished I was the one losing this time because the guy with four 3's took home more money with the jackpot. But I'm not complaining," he said.
Tallent had pocket queens and the flop came up 3-3-queen, so he already knew he had a good hand with a full house. When the fourth queen came on the turn, he knew, mathematically, he had the best hand.
"It never even crossed my mind that he could have four of a kind. But then I went all-in and when he called my all-in so quickly, I figured out he might also have four-of-a-kind," Tallent said. "We then looked at each other and I said, 'you got it?''' and he said, 'you got it?' and we both said yes. We realized what had happened and we all just started jumping up and down. Everybody in the poker room figured out what had happened and gathered around, there was this buzz everywhere.
"I guess the stars just aligned perfectly that night."
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