Another Epic Hand from the WSOP: Royal Flush vs Aces Full of Jacks

Last week we brought you a PLO hand with a Royal Flush, this time one fell on the river in a NLHE hand.

This happened during the $2,620 buy-in No Limit Hold'em MARATHON Event. The name refers to the fact that the players start with extremely deep stacks, 262 BBs and levels only increase after every 100 minutes - therefore the whole tournament takes an extremely long time to finish.

Of course if we see hands like these, no-one will grow tired of poker no matter how long the tourney's been running.

This hand went down between Tim Reilly and most WSOPC title winner Maurice Hawkins.

The hand started with an about  1.5 BB (65,000 chips) raise from Jeffrey Turton, then a 3-bet from Maurice Hawkins to 155,000 with pocket Aces. Reilly called on the button with KQ of spades, while the original pre-flop raiser folded.

The flop came AsJdTs, giving Reilly the nut straight with a little nut flush draw on the side - meanwhile Hawkins flopped top set.  Reilly checked out of position, Hawkins put out what he most likely thought was a value bet, 160,000 which was evidently called by Reilly.

The turn Jh meant that Hawkins pulled ahead, being the over 97% favorite to have the best hand at the end with Aces full.

But sometimes, the 3% probality events happen, that's part of poker: Js on the river, giving Reilly the absolute nuts Royal Flush. He had the composure to check the river too, Hawkins shoved which was called by Reilly, once again, evidently. 

The two players had a little brawl at the table, according to Hawkins, it happened after the Royal Flush hand, according Reilly, it happened earlier. But Reilly did tease his opponent by saying "go back to the Circuit, this isn't the Circuit", referring to Hawkins' record 10 WSOPC wins.

The Marathon ended with Venezuelan Joseph Di Rosa's victory; Reilly and Hawkins both made the final table, Reilly finished 4th while Hawkins finished 9th.