Odds of hitting the €4mil Jumbo 7 Jackpot

A couple of things to note about the current state of Evolution’s Jumbo 7 Jackpot.

First and foremost, it’s big. Very big. Over the past few months this progressive jackpot has slowly climbed its way to just shy of €4 million (or £4 million if you casino account is denominated in pounds).

Secondly, there don’t seem to be as many players on this table as there were when the game first launched. Plenty of other games to choose from these days, and perhaps the old live Casino Hold’em table has lost some of its lustre?

But given the fact that your share of the jackpot is dependent on the number of players taking the jackpot side bet, fewer players is a good thing!

Looking back at having a crack at the Jumbo 7 Jackpot when the game was just over a year old, there’d usually be a dozen or so players taking the jackpot side bet each round. My share (which I never won) would usually be around the €100,000 mark. Significantly less that the €1.3 million I would have won with a hit earlier today!

No doubt there are plenty of rounds being dealt these days where you could be the only participant, and stand a chance to win nearly €4 million! All you need is a €1 side bet and a 7 card Straight Flush (your pockets plus community cards).

This of course begs the question…

What are the odds of a 7 card Straight Flush?

Let’s first consider how many possible Straight Flushes that can be dealt. For each suit there’s 8 possibilities:

• A-7, 2-8, 3-9, 4-10, 5-J, 6-Q, 7-K, 8-A

Making 32 total.

Now, the number of possible 7 card hands dealt from a 52 card deck is equal to the combination  = 133,784,560.

So 32 chances in 133,784,560. Or 1 in 4,180,767.

Expressed another way, it is likely to take you 4,180,767 hands to finally hit your 7 card Straight Flush. At €1 per hand, you’ll have invested over €4 million to get there! Hopefully the jackpot at that point in time is significantly higher.

When you break it down it never seems quite so appealing does it?

The more optimistic way of looking at it (the Lloyd Christmas way)…1 chance in 4 million is still a chance (and it is going to be won).