Kings rule! (Simei 5/12/2007)

The game started with the usual suspects, 7 of them to be exact. 5 new players an hour later, and all but one were all able to get a hand or two in. First two hands saw Renpecs flop back to back sets and get value for both. His image definitely helped in maximizing his winnings. As with most regulars in the game, history if a very strong factor and will continue to be so until everyone suffers random amnesia attacks.

A min raise preflop by Armuk to a dollar was reraised by Gansch to 3.50 more, four flat calls later and its another multi-way pot preflop. The first 3 cards were a rainbow A J Q. After Armuk bets out 5 bucks, Gansch once again reraises to 15. Folding back to Armuk, he calls, and heads-up to the turn. A harmless 5 on the turn and Armuk checks to Gansch who really likes his hand and bets out 25, which Armuk calls. An even more harmless 6 lands on the river and once checked over to Gansch who bets an odd 15. Obviously a value bet, Armuk reluctantly calls and quickly flips over Kings. Gansch shows Top and bottom pair, AJ. Hand played out normally, although one could question the slowplay of the Kings preflop led to its downfall. Slowplaying a hand does have its merits, but sometimes aggression is your friend. No reason to play postflop when a massive raise preflop will get the job done, as the next hand illustrates.

After raising preflop the last hand to 5, Lesrach raises again with the same amount. Jushin smells a move and reraises to 15. Folded back to Lesrach who rereraises to 45. Jushin instafolds, and gets rewarded by being shown he made a good laydown. Lesrach tables Kings and the whole table acknowledges the strong play. I don't, well actually yeah, it's a strong play. But Lesrach is still a donkey. Dont ask me why. Lets just say I have a read.

Armuk flops a monster a couple of hands later with KJ and unfortunately does not get any action. That tends to happen when you flop full houses like that. Unless someone has another draw, they just fall in the realm of "awwww, thats amazing!" Doesnt that just bite when that happens?

In a limped pot that saw the half of Singapore participate, the flop comes out A J 5 with two hearts. Kime leads out for 3 in early position and gets called in 2 spots. Gansch raises it to 12.50. Nyar reraises to 25 and Kime and another Armuk fold. Vogii reraises all in for another 35. Gansch folds and Nyar seems to reluctantly call and asks if Vogii is on a flush draw. He flips over middle set of Jacks and Nyar is almost drawing dead with A3. An interesting hand from the several standpoints: First was the limp in late position with Jacks, can either be considered incredibly tight or just plain passive. The reraises in several spots were obviously plays by weaker aces, and the oddest or most ironic thing about it was the weakest ace was what was left to face the mid set.

A raise from early position player Gansch to 3.50 had 4 callers and they all saw a flop of 4 Q T with 2 spades. Gansch leads out on the flop with 11 and is check raised all in by Jushin who puts in additional 34 for Gansch to call. Almost instantly he calls and flips over KQ offsuit for top pair. Jushin turns over A4 of spades and is ahead on the flop. Bricks on the turn and river and Jushin sits out after busting his first buyin. Important to note here was the instacall of Gansch who seemingly dismisses a stronger Queen or any stronger hand. Speaking to him about the hand, he tells me that his read prompted the call and nothing else. Something you can never fault Gansch is that he goes with his read and he sticks with it. No regrets, no second thoughts. You have to admire that in a poker player. Too many a times do we hear ourselves going, "I know you have nothing, but Im folding" Gansch is one of the few players that actually considers and executes plays based solely on reads. But no matter what I may say about him, Jushin still thinks it was a donk call. The man is entitled to his opinion, especially when its correct.

A bit later, an aggressive Nyar raises preflop to 5 and get 5 callers. Flop comes 4 J 3 with 2 spades. Checked to Kime who bets out 15. Flat call by SB Armuk and Nyar pushes all-in having both Kime and Armuk covered. Kime instacalls and Armuk folds after much thought. 2 and 5 on the turn and river respectively. Kime flips over 34 for two pair and Nyar mucks AJ. Interesting aspect about the hand was the shove by Nyar to isolate to at least one player. As he mentions after the game, he knows that one person has a flush draw, which Armuk had actually, and one had top pair. Unfortunately, he ran into two pair. But this will not happen often enough to make the shove unprofitable.

Biggest hand of the night was a doozie. Nyar raises preflop to 6.50 and is minraised by Renpecs to 13. Flat call by Lesrach and Ejoy minraises to 26. Folded back to Nyar who pushes allin, having everyone in the table covered. Both Ejoy and Renpecs call and they flip rigged hands, typical of those seen in Poker Shows. AA for Nyar, KK for Ejoy and JJ for Renpecs. Nyar tosses around the idea of running the entire board multiple times and after a brief discussion, is dismissed by the other two. A king on the turn sends a massive 300 pot towards Ejoy. One could ask why Renpecs called the allin when it seemed that his pair was beat. He was not necessarily pot committed as he still had more than 80 behind. But anyone who know Renpecs, reasoning to him on this issue is close to pointless. Nyar suggesting the running of boards, even being a massive favorite, shows that a continuing trend of poker players. They have seen enough beats to recognize good business sense and just cut losses, because gambling with one pair against two other pairs with 5 cards to come is simply to risky.

One hand saw one of the biggest raises preflop, to 8 buy Nyar. Called in 4 positions, they all saw a flop of 4 J 7 with 2 spades. Nyar bets 13 on the turn and folded back to SB Armuk who calls. A Ten of clubs on the turn and Armuk checks to Nyar who bets 20, which Armuk calls. River is a Queen of clubs and Armuk once again checks to Nyar who thinks for a while and bets out 30. Armuk considers the possibility of runner-runner flush but eventually calls with 89 and a turned straight. Nyar tables AA, and the best hand preflop in NLHE gets cracked once again.

These are some of the highlights of the night. If any of the participants feel I left any important hands out, please let me know and Ill add them as soon as I can.

Thanks for reading guys and good luck at the tables