A Stockton player walked away from Sky River Casino with a $135,995 progressive jackpot after landing one of the rarest hands in Face Up Pai Gow Poker: five aces, made up of all four natural aces plus the joker card. The win, reported by The Sacramento Bee, adds another six-figure headline to a casino that has been on a hot streak all year.
Per the Sacramento Bee, the hand was pulled at the Elk Grove casino, located at 1 Sky River Parkway about a 15-mile drive southeast of downtown Sacramento. Drawing five aces from the 53-card deck used in Face Up Pai Gow Poker produces one of the game's jackpot hands. That makes it the second-highest possible hand in the game, trailing only a seven-card natural straight flush.
How the Commission-Free Game Works
Face Up Pai Gow Poker distinguishes itself from traditional pai gow by dealing all seven of the dealer's cards face-up before players set their hands, a format that eliminates the standard 5% commission but causes every main wager to push if the dealer holds an Ace-high hand, according to Yaamava' Resort & Casino. The format combines a commission-free structure with exposed dealer cards.
Michael J. Facenda said the game remains popular because it blends classic table-game strategy with the draw of a progressive jackpot, per the Sacramento Bee. Sky River Casino opened in 2022 and now spans 100,000 square feet, with more than 2,500 slot machines, over 80 table games, and 18 restaurants and bars on the property, the outlet reported.
Part of a Broader Jackpot Streak
The $135,995 win fits into a run of high-value payouts Sky River has publicized this year. Hoodline reported more than $144 million in slot machine payouts and $4.6 million in table-game jackpots so far in 2026, a stretch that included a property-record $1.1 million slot win on a $3 spin in April, according to the Sacramento Bee's earlier reporting. Hoodline has previously covered a $400K birthday blackjack jackpot at the same casino, part of a pattern that also included a $700,503 progressive table win and a $552,460 slot jackpot earlier this year.
Six-figure Face Up Pai Gow jackpots aren't unique to Elk Grove. The Venetian in Las Vegas dropped $630,865 on a Face Up Pai Gow hand.
Tribal Ownership and Tax Rules
Sky River Casino is owned by the Wilton Rancheria, the only federally recognized Native American tribe in Sacramento County, and is operated in partnership with Boyd Gaming Corporation, the Sacramento Bee reported.
Jackpots of this size can involve paperwork.
The casino's win streak has coincided with a major construction push. Wilton Rancheria broke ground in April 2026 on a multi-year resort expansion that includes a 300-room hotel tower, an outdoor pool, a day spa, and a 30,000-square-foot event center expected to open in phases through 2027, according to Indian Gaming. Tribal leaders used soil from Wilton Rancheria land where the casino operates during the groundbreaking ceremony. That expansion followed the March 2026 opening of a five-story, 1,600-stall parking garage alongside a 20,000-square-foot gaming floor expansion that added 312 slot machines, as reported by the Elk Grove Citizen.
People struggling with gambling addiction can seek help by calling the National Gambling Hotline at 1-800-522-4700 or visiting the National Council on Problem Gambling website.
