What’s New on Stake Poker? The Rundown

The $1,000,000 Bad Beat Jackpot (Yes, Really)

Let’s start with the headline act: a $1 million Bad Beat Jackpot. Both Stake.com and Stake.us are now home to this chunky prize pool — and yes, the losses that hurt the most might actually pay off.

Here’s how it works:

• Trigger hands:
  • Hold’em: AAAJJ or better
  • PLO4: 2222x or better
  • PLO5: 8888x or better
• Must go to showdown
• Both winner and loser must use two hole cards
• Four players must be dealt in
• First run only counts (in case of multi-run boards)

As for the split:

• 8% goes to the unlucky loser
• 5% to the winner
• 3% is split between other players dealt in

And just to add more fuel to the game economy, 2.5% of all ring game rake goes into the jackpot fund — which is tiered by stakes, from $2.50/$5 down to $0.01/$0.02.

But don’t get any ideas about hit-and-run tactics.

Leave the table before the hand finishes, and you forfeit your slice.

Cash Games: Fewer Predators, Faster Action

Stake has also made some quiet but meaningful tweaks to its cash game ecosystem:

• Auto-seating is in place to cut wait times and clamp down on table selection tactics (or as the team likes to put it: “before PokerStars, thank you very much”)
• Table cap: Players can only sit at six tables max across both cash and tournaments — a move aimed at protecting the ecosystem
• Run It Twice and Straddle options are now available across 5-max and 8-max NLH tables, plus 7-max Omaha
• More variants are on the roadmap — Stake’s not done tinkering yet

Tournaments: Daily Freerolls, New Schedule, and Streamer Collabs

On the MTT side, Stake has rolled out a new schedule with regular 8-max events, classic re-entry formats, PKOs, Sit & Gos, and daily freerolls:

• Stake.com: $2,000 in freerolls per day
• Stake.us: SC 600 in freerolls daily

There’s also Early Bird protection and Bubble Protection, for those who like to flirt with danger but prefer a soft landing.

PLO5 Hits the Lobby (with a Twist)

As of August 14th, PLO5 is now live on 6-max tables — and to keep things clean, hole cards only show when it’s your turn. It’s a small but meaningful tweak to discourage collusion and ghosting.

This launch coincided with a jackpot top-up, pushing both site pools back to $1 million after over $200K was already awarded on each.

Kick-Backed Tournaments: When Streamers Go All-In

Stake has been busy collaborating with Kick streamers to bring more eyeballs (and entries) to its tournament lineup. Here’s a rundown of what’s already happened — and what’s still on the way:

• Syztmz:
  • $20K GTD freeroll on .COM hit its 6,000-player cap, plus 934 re-entries
• PaymoneyWubby:
  • SC30K GTD event on .US with an SC5 entry
• Teuf:
  • $2,500 freeroll + $2,500 GTD $10 entry events on .COM
• FencerGG:
  • 3x $5K GTD freerolls on .COM
  • SC2.5K GTD on .US completed
  • SC10K GTD freeroll coming this weekend
• StahnGG:
  • $2.5K freeroll completed (.COM)
  • SC1.25K freeroll upcoming (.US)
• Danludan/Gena88:
  • 3x $5K GTD $5-entry events scheduled over the long weekend (.COM)

And yes — all these events have been streamed or will be streamed on Kick, so there’s a bit of showbiz in the mix too.

A Million Here, a Million There…

In under two months, Stake claims to have paid out over $1M on .COM and SC1M on .US — through freerolls, MTTs, and special events.

So while it might not (yet) be the biggest name in online poker, Stake is clearly gunning for some attention — and it’s doing so with a mix of modern features, generous promos, and a splash of streamer-fueled spectacle.