Folsom casino's $1 million prize hard to surmise

Any grizzled veteran of gambling wars is quick to point out the old saying that there's no such thing as easy money. It's gospel. It's written in stone. Every dollar - earned gambling or otherwise - comes at the cost of a price or at least comes in the face of virtually insurmountable odds. That's the way of the world.And that reminds me of a funny story in Andrew Beyer's 1975 groundbreaking horse race handicapping book "Picking Winners."Beyer's story goes that a newcomer was at Aqueduct and cheered wildly as he won the daily double.After his horse in the second race crossed the finish line in front, the young man exclaimed, "What an easy game. How long has this been going on?"An old veteran of the game overheard the spectacle and called after the newcomer as he raced to the window to cash his ticket, "Have a good life, kid."From that day on, the kid was known as "Good Life," and he was last seen in the remote corners of the Aqueduct grandstand trying to scrounge the price of a bet, before he disappeared from the track altogether.The reason I relate Beyer's story is because the Folsom Lake Bowl Sports Bar and Casino, located at 511 East Bidwell St., about a month ago began offering the guaranteed $1 million Bad Beat Jackpot.And contrary to the rule of money coming at a price, there is no cost to cash in the $1 million dollar jackpot.Every time a player sits down for a game at a Folsom Lake Bowl Sports Bar and Casino automated poker table - tournaments excluded - he or she has a chance of nailing the $1 million prize.Here's the thing, though. Winning the $1 million Bad Beat Jackpot, which is available nationwide at only two places - Folsom Lake Bowl Sports Bar and Casino and Four Winds Casino in Michigan - costs the player nothing extra. Just participating in a non-tournament poker game in Folsom qualifies the player.The expression "Bad Beat," by the way, in poker terms means exactly what it says. It is a subjective term for a hand in which a player who had what appeared to be strong cards nevertheless loses.Here's how the Bad Beat Jackpot works: Any four 4s hand beaten by a royal flush. That's it. The guy with the quad 4s gets $400,000, the guy with the royal flush gets $200,000 and everybody else playing in the game splits the remaining $400,000."It's the biggest poker jackpot on the West Coast," said Dan Dreher, part owner of the casino along with his brother, sister and dad.The odds of hitting it, of course, are astronomical. Put it this way, there's a chance that a meteor will land on your house - about once chance in 182 billion. You could win the California lottery. But 13 million-to-1 odds say you won't.Calculating the odds of hitting the $1 million Bad Beat Jackpot is difficult. But suffice it to say, they are remote. The odds of pulling a royal flush on five cards dealt in stud poker are 649,740-to-1.But maybe it's your lucky day. Keep in mind, however, there's a better chance of being struck by lightning - about one chance in 576,000.