Avi Shamir is finally taking home his share of last year’s bad beat jackpot after the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) rules in his favor in the Red Rock Casino Resort Spa v. Avinoam Shamir case.

According to the disposition published by the NGCB last week, 83-year-old poker player Avi Shamir was finally awarded his $62,126 share of the $120,000 bad beat poker jackpot won last July 7 at the Red Rock Casino Resort & Spa.

Bad Beat Jackpot Decision In Favor of Players

The NGCB ruling came months after the battle against Red Rock and poker players Shamir and Leonard Schreter, who hit the bad beat jackpot at the said casino last year. It was on July 7, 2017 when Shamir lost a straight flush to a higher straight flush by Schreter inside one of the Station Casinos poker rooms. In traditional bad beat poker rules, that would have awarded them a share of the bad beat jackpot, which then was at an enormous $120,000.

According to Station Casinos Jumbo Hold’em Poker Progressive Jackpot rules, Shamir was to win 40 percent of the jackpot, Schreter to win 25 percent, the players at their table to share 3 percent, and all the concurrent Texas Hold’em players in the Station Casino poker rooms were to split the remaining 32 percent.

It would have been a huge payday but the contention came when the management reviewed the action that happened at the table. When the river card was dealt, Schreter showed his hand before the dealer asked them to do so. By doing so, Schreter has exposed his cards while he and Shamir still had actions to call and chips to use.

Red Rock Must Pay Bad Beat Jackpot

Despite the testimony of their fellow tablemates that Schreter’s early action wouldn’t have changed the course of the game since no other cards were to be dealt, Red Rock deemed Schreter’s action a violation of their regulations that safeguard the awarding of the bad beat jackpot and as an act of conspiracy with Shamir to win the jackpot.

After the Red Rock management denied Shamir, Schreter and the rest of the players at the Station Casino their payouts, Shamir and Schreter went to the NGCB for a review of Red Rock’s decision. NGCB’s Bill Olliges reviewed the case and concluded that Red Rock should pay the jackpot to the players.

After the initial investigation and decision, Red Rock appealed and took the case to a December 12 hearing, where both parties argued their defense.

In Jan 2018, NGCB’s Terry Johnson requested Red Rock to clarify whether they are upholding Station’s bad beat jackpot rules or standard poker room procedural rules to assess the jackpot payout. According to the Station’s bad beat jackpot rules, discussion of hands during the play may void the jackpot payout and Red Rock had been arguing during their appeal that Schreter’s early show of hands is considered a non-verbal form of this discussion.

On the other hand, according to rules upheld during tournament poker, Schreter’s action would not have resulted to a dead hand but a penalty—this meant that Red Rock should have not nullified the jackpot payout.

After another round of investigations and assessments, the NGCB came out with their final decision that Red Rock is to pay the bad beat jackpot to the corresponding recipients. It also looks like the decision has been upheld by Red Rock since the disposition read “payment awarded, per GCB order.”

Tags: Avi Shamir, Leonard Schreter, Nevada Gaming Control Board, NGCB, Red Rock Resort, Station Casinos

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 14th, 2018 at 12:38 am and is filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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