Updated on 22 Feb 26 by
Barry Carter
Poker Expert

$1.2 million Bad Beat Jackpot hits in Canada

We recap some stories you may have missed including a bench press prop bet and a dog in a card room.





$1.2 million Bad Beat Jackpot gets there

This year has already seen one of the sickest Bad Beat Jackpots of all time and this week we saw one of the biggest.

The Playground Poker Club in Montreal saw their massive jackpot get hit in the early hours of the morning for a whopping $1,249,643.

Quad Nines were no good against a straight flush, but as per the rules of the jackpot, 40% of the jackpot goes to the losing hand, so in this case that's $499,857 for the losing quads. Just under $250,000 goes to the player with the straight flush, a further $250k was shared with everyone else at the table, and another $250k shared with everyone playing in the card room at the time (which would have been a low number as it was early in the morning). 

Moongirl benches her way to $2k

The $2,000 bench press prop bet between cross fit obsessed poker pro Danielle Andersen and Lily Kiletto (who had previously never bench pressed) took place last week, and it wasn't even close:

And like a true crossfitter, she was very good at bragging about it:

Doggo in a cardroom

Who doesn't love a dog in a card room? Only an inhuman monster wouldn't get distracted by this handsome pooch waiting by their owner while they play poker:

How am I supposed to concentrate? from r/poker

Lex is getting the rungood back

Lex Veldhuis is getting his mojo back, he won his second tournament of the week and his big hands are finally starting to hold up after a brutal WCOOP:

Have you ever seen a dog in a poker room? Let us know in the comments:


Barry Carter
Poker Expert

Barry Carter is the editor of PokerStrategy.com and the co-author of The Mental Game of Poker 1 & 2, Poker Satellite Strategy, PKO Poker Strategy, Endgame Poker Strategy, GTO Poker Simplified, Mystery Bounty Poker Strategy and Beyond GTO. In 2025, he won the Global Poker Awards for Best Book and Twitter Personality of the Year.