Denver couple nearly $200k richer after bad-beat win

If there’s a Murphy’s Law to describe when anything that can go wrong goes wrong, then maybe there should be an Olson’s Law to define the opposite happening. At least that’s how Mike and Jennifer Olson felt after a whirlwind of events left them with a win of almost $200,000 at Ameristar recently.

“It was our anniversary weekend,” said Mike, “and we were seriously considering cancelling our plans to go (to Black Hawk) because money was tight.”

After some discussions back and forth, and with a night already booked at Ameristar, they decided to head up the hill. Mike stayed up until 4 a.m. that night playing poker, which was highlighted by a straight flush hand. Considering his hand and the fact that Ameristar’s bad beat jackpot was over $400,000, he was more than a little excited when he saw the dealer turn over a pair of 7s. Unfortunately, no one matched the pair.

Later that morning, Mike hit another straight flush, this time with 2s showing on the board. Again, no one matched the pair, but things were starting to feel a little strange. “I think I’ve hit five straight flushes in my entire life,” explained Mike, “and here I had two within 24 hours and both of them with pairs on the table and a bad beat in effect.” (Editor’s note: The odds of making a straight flush are 1 in 72,193.)

Fast-forward a few hours and the couple has decided it’s time for a lunch break. “I had moved positions at the table so I could sit next to my wife, and after I did that, we talked about standing up to go get lunch. Why we didn’t – because we were both hungry – I really can’t tell you.” On they played, eventually arriving at their magical hand:

“When the hand came around,” said Mike, “my wife raised $10 before the flop and got three callers from our group. The flop came out 5D, 9C and 9S. It was checked to her and she made a $30 raise. She got one fold and the other player asked her how much she had left, and she said $13. So he said, ‘I’ll put you all in.’ So she called and turns over the 9D and 9H for a flopped four of a kind. I was very impressed with my wife’s level of play here, because I know her and I know her tells, and she showed no indication of having four of a kind. She fooled even me. The other caller turns over a 7C and 8C. It was a very loose play on his part.”

The dealer then pulled all the pot together. The card he laid down on the turn was a 5C. “At this point,” said Mike, “I made a comment to the table, almost humorously, that if we get the 6C on the river, we get the bad beat. Everybody was aware of it, and a little antsy, but it was kind of like winning the lottery, so no one was expecting too much. So, the action at the table is over, and all that’s left is for the dealer to lay down the river. The absolute only card in the entire deck, the miracle river card, is the 6C, and that’s exactly what the dealer turns over. The whole table was almost in shock, as if it was more like winning a big pot, not like winning a jackpot. The house said it was the quietest bad beat table they had ever seen. It was probably because none of us had ever even seen a bad beat come through. My wife got $177,000 and I got the table share of $16,800.” (The couple later received another $2,300 after a player disqualification.)

Suddenly, the anniversary weekend had taken a drastic turn for the Olsons. “We knew it would take a while to process things and there were many phone calls made in the interim,” said Mike. “Most people didn’t believe us.”

“Our lucky number as a couple is 13,” said Mike, “it’s Jennifer’s birthday, it’s our daughter’s birthday, it’s my mom’s birthday and it’s our anniversary day. The pager we got to be called to sit down at the table was No. 13. She had $13 left when she put all in on the hand. And, there was an ominous 13 cents that had somehow been put in the bad beat jackpot. Somehow, some one had slipped 13 cents in the slot by the dealer and, by law, the casino couldn’t take it out of the kitty. The floor supervisor joked, ‘We’ve got this random 13 cents here, everybody OK if we give it to her?’ meaning my wife.” Every one laughed and agreed. After all, it was only Olson’s Law.

~ by Sam DeLeo, sdeleo@denverpost.com