Casino Arizona Awards Record Poker Jackpot

SALT RIVER PIMA-MARICOPA INDIAN COMMUNITY, Arizona – (PRESS RELEASE) -- Did you ever think you could win a $250,000 jackpot with a low hand? Neither did Tim Armstrong, but he did win the largest bad beat poker jackpot in Arizona history at Casino Arizona at Talking Stick on Monday, October 31. Armstrong of Chandler walked away with a Halloween treat of $250,000 while playing in the Casino's Stud and Hold'em Super Bad Beat Poker promotion. The other eight players at the table shared the remaining $256,000, making this $506,000 jackpot the largest poker jackpot during a promotion ever awarded in Arizona, and possibly the largest in the world paid by a Native American casino.

"I couldn't believe I had won," said Tim Armstrong. "I was hoping the woman I was playing against had the ace and king of diamonds, because if so, I knew I had won a quarter of a million dollars." Armstrong added, "This is the only time playing poker that I kept raising in hopes of having the losing hand."

A regular poker player at Casino Arizona Armstrong, 45, moved from California two years ago when he was laid off from a hi-tech job. With a $100 buy-in and strategic play, he won the jackpot; actually he lost the hand, which meant that he would walk home with the top award of $250,000. The woman with the better hand walked away with $125,000, while the remaining seven players shared the rest of the jackpot.

"The excitement in the Talking Stick poker room when the jackpot hit was like nothing I had ever seen before, and I would like to congratulate our jackpot winners on behalf of Casino Arizona," said Kent Odekirk, poker manager for Casino Arizona. "With more than 37 bad beat poker jackpots, plus $1.7 million paid to poker players in October alone, why wouldn't they play here?"

Both players had a straight flush. The better hand was a royal flush in diamonds. Armstrong, the winner of the jackpot, held the eight and nine of diamonds.

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