Royal Flush Bonus FTW

I have only played about 300 hands of 10nl so far today, but I had to report on the epicness that just happened.  I've hit royal flushes in sng's/mtt's in the past on Stars/Tilt which wern't really a big deal.  However, since I started playing cash on Merge, I was aware they had a promotion where if you hit a royal at a cash table, you would get a 100 bb bonus by sending in the hh.  So far in my ~140k hands on Merge I had yet to hit one.

Well, as fate would have it, today was my day. A loose opener raised utg and i flatted from the button with AdJd.  I was already fist-pumping when the flop came down QdTdKc.  Flopping the nuts with a royal flush draw is always nice.  The raiser led and I flatted.  The turn came the Kd completeing my royal flush and a I shit a brick when he checked.  Really didn't know what to do since I wanted to get paid from my royal.  Sounds dumb that after so much poker experience I would freeze up in a spot where I had the nuts, but i'm sure a lot of you can understand the feeling of "I better not fuck this up" lol.

Since I already knew I had the $10 bonus locked up, I figured betting was the best idea so I bet about 2/3 pot and he called.  River was the 9h which turned out to be the gin card for me.  The villian led out for ~$3, i shipped, he called.  He ended up having JJ for a rivered straight.  I don't think he could have played that hand worse.  Not only is his turn call pretty terrible, but his river call is never good after I ship.  I'm not complaining though, I hope to see him again :)

I guess I would have been happy even if he had folded the turn since I would have gotten the $10 bonus either way (the only terms of the promotion are that you must win the hand after hitting your royal lol).  However, to be able to also stack the guy is pretty fortunate imo.    Going to take a break for an hour or so, then get back to the grind.  Hope everyone's running as good as me today :)

HH/graph so far for today:


***** Hand History for Game 1111111111 ***** (Merge)
$10.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Friday, September 16, 04:25:27 ET 2011
Table Lima (40645870) (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Seat 1: Player1 ( $10.88 USD ) - VPIP: 28, PFR: 22, 3B: 7, AF: 3.1, Hands: 2763
Seat 2: Player2 ( $11.33 USD ) - VPIP: 19, PFR: 14, 3B: 4, AF: 2.6, Hands: 34350
Seat 3: Hero ( $12.29 USD )
Seat 4: Player4 ( $10.00 USD ) - VPIP: 20, PFR: 17, 3B: 7, AF: 3.0, Hands: 15909
Seat 5: Player5 ( $19.38 USD ) - VPIP: 39, PFR: 5, 3B: 2, AF: 1.2, Hands: 879
Seat 6: Player6 ( $9.85 USD ) - VPIP: 32, PFR: 25, 3B: 13, AF: 2.5, Hands: 485
Player4 posts small blind [$0.05 USD].
Player5 posts big blind [$0.10 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Hero [  Jd Ad ]
Player6 raises [$0.30 USD]
Player1 folds
Player2 folds
Hero calls [$0.30 USD]
Player4 folds
Player5 folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ Qd, Td, Kc ]
Player6 bets [$0.50 USD]
Hero calls [$0.50 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Kd ]
Player6 checks
Hero bets [$1.00 USD]
Player6 calls [$1.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 9h ]
Player6 bets [$2.81 USD]
Hero raises [$8.58 USD]
Player6 calls [$5.24 USD]
Hero shows [Jd, Ad ]
Player6 shows [Jh, Jc ]
Hero wins $18.86 USD from main pot
Hero wins $0.53 USD