Flagship skin Carbon Poker has revealed that the new BBJ is 100% network-funded, meaning that players at any full and 6-max cash tables are eligible to be jackpot winners with no cash taken from each pot. That includes No-Limit and Fixed-Limit action.

The new BBJ will be funded by Merge on a rolling basis starting with $1,000 and adding $0.10 every minute until a player loses a hand holding at least four of a kind. Simple arithmetic tells us that the BBJ will increase at the rate of $144 per day and $1,008 per week.

The requirements to hit the jackpot are that three players must be dealt into the hand and at least two must continue to the showdown stage. Also, both the hand's winner and the bad beat recipient must use both of their hole cards.

Every player seated at the table will grab a piece of the jackpot when the BBJ hits. The player who suffers the bad beat gets the largest share of the jackpot at 38%, while 20.5% will go to the hand winner and another 20.5% will be equally distributed to the other players at the table. The 21% left over is reserved in order to seed the new jackpot.

Bad Beat Jackpots had been quite popular at a number of poker sites years ago, especially among the recreational crowd. However, most employed scooping a rake from each pot in order to fund the jackpot, severely crippling the efforts of players attempting to grind out profits on a daily basis.

Players began taking notice of their reduced bankrolls due to taking a hit on the BBJ rake, including the casual players that the jackpot is geared toward. This caused many to turn away from BBJ tables.

Now that Merge has introduced rake-free BBJ action, even at the tiny rolling amount of $144 per day, it may prompt some players to once again patronize the likes of Aced Poker, PlayersOnly, Sportsbook and Carbon Poker.