Driving to Motor City Casino in Detroit to play poker, Kenny Tallent of Battle Creek, Michigan saw a meteor. “It was like a big, green flash I saw out of the corner of my eye. My first thought was it was a nuclear bomb or something. Maybe seeing the meteor was a precursor to my luck that night,” he said. Whether it was the meteor, good luck or skill, Tallent ended up taking home $213,712.76 that night.
At the end of a round, Tallent, a 13-year poker player, flipped over his two queens to reveal four of a kind. Another player at the table turned over two threes for a lower four of a kind. Both won big as a result. Tallent said, “I looked at him and said, ‘Do you got it?’ He looked at me and said, ‘Do you got it?’ And we both rolled our hands over and we went crazy. We started jumping up and down and dancing. The whole room gravitated to our table.”
The four of a kinds triggered a bad beat jackpot, triggering a $1 million-plus jackpot. “Casinos set up bad beat jackpots to pay people when they lose with a really good hand like that. And at Motor City that bad beat jackpot was four of a kind beaten by four of a kind,” Tallent said
Since the jackpot is designed to reward the loser, the player with the four threes got 40 percent of the money. Tallent, as the winner, got 20 percent, or $213,712.76. The other players at the table all received a percentage for participating in the game.
“I was only hoping he had the other four of a kind. I wasn’t even thinking about the money I won from the hand. It was minuscule to the bad beat jackpot,” Tallent said. He stated he plans to use his winnings to pay off his car, contribute more to his 401K and help his parents. He added, “I do want to take the money to go play in the World Series of Poker this year. And I’m hoping after this summer you’ll be interviewing me again after I win the World Series of Poker.”
