Running Bad or Playing Bad?

The astute readers amongst you may have noticed that I have not posted a review of May, well frankly there wasn’t much to report on and I don’t intend to post a monthly review as I think that would make for a boring blog. Suffice to say I ran pretty dry, not getting many good hands, hardly flopping a set and when I had a hand I was getting little action, when I tried to make a move I was frequently getting played back at. Destacker, Lugfest, LockeLamora and myself played in a WSOP Team Championship event at Ladbrokes, which consisted of the 4 of us playing 12 MTTs with points based on finishing positions. After the 12 games we scored 810 points which finished 1 point off 2nd place, which would have been worth a 3,500 euro WSOP Package for us all, this was very disappointing for all 4 of us as we were probably the best team in the championship but we all got numerous instances of bad luck in different tournaments that we couldn't overcome, we could easily have finished 1st and scored a main event package, but it wasn't meant to be. May ended bad but in the first week in June I managed a good score on PokerStars, I got to the final 4 of 1222 runners in a $33 buyin MTT, I ran fairly well to get there, winning most of the races I got involved in. When we got 4 handed we agreed to do a deal where we all got $4k each and 1st would get the extra $900. Considering I was 3rd in chips and a way behind the leader, 4th place was $2.5k and 1st was $6.3k I was happy to make this deal, I was surprised the chip leader agreed to it as he had a nice chiplead, but of course that could all have changed on a flip.

That MTT aside I have ran pretty poorly in recent weeks, but this isn’t going to be a whinge blog, I have spoken before about how running bad can lead to playing bad without the player even noticing, when running bad marginal decisions are much harder and can be affected by factors outside of the current dynamics. A good example of this is when you are in a MTT and have been card for a long time and haven’t won a pot when you get dealt a good hand, say JJ on the button. You have 30bb but before the action gets to you there is an UTG raise and a 3 bet shove from a tight player, now if you were ‘running well’ then this hand is probably an easy fold but if you have been card dead then sometimes you might be tempted to call because it is the best you have seen for sometime, which is clearly something that should never be considered when deciding an action, historic hand distributions should always be irrelevant when making a decision.

I am going to highlight a recent hand I played in Welllbet’s Home Game which on the surface looks like run bad but in fact I played it poorly and I think it is a good hand to learn from. In this hand I am currently 2^nd in chips with 25bb and there are 12 left out of 91 runners, 10 get paid so we are near the direct bubble:

Blinds are now 600 / 1,200

Seat 1: ForFoxSake - 30,485

Seat 3: Seat 3 - 22,472

Seat 6: Seat 6 - 10,975

Seat 7: Seat 7 - 35,854

Seat 8: Seat 8 - 17,516

Seat 9: Seat 9 - 22,877

Moving Button to seat 6

6 x posts ante of 150

Seat 7 posts small blind (600)

Seat 8 posts big blind (1,200)

Dealing [6 h][6 s] to ForFoxSake

Seat 9 folds

ForFoxSake raises to 2,750

Seat 3 and 6 fold

Seat 7 calls 2,750

Seat 8 folds

Pot sizes: 7,600

Dealing Flop [4 c][9 c][K d]

Seat 7 checks

ForFoxSake bets 3,425

Seat 7 calls 3,425

Pot sizes: 14,450

Dealing Turn [J d]

Seat 7 checks

ForFoxSake checks

Pot sizes: 14,450

Dealing River [6 d]

Seat 7 bets 8,400

I make a standard size open and get called by the small blind, I make a c-bet and get called, the turn goes check check. The river gives me a set and the villain leads out, although the river also brought a back door flush draw I don’t think there are many combinations of diamonds he would have here, especially with the top pair on the flop being a diamond, a hand like QTc is possible but I think sets are unlikely here, so the vast majority of the time my set is good here. Due to not running too good in recent times and not hitting many sets I make a knee jerk reaction and shove:

ForFoxSake raises to 24,160 (all-in)

Seat 7 calls 24,160

Pot sizes: 62,770

ForFoxSake shows [6 h][6 s]

Seat 7 shows [A d][9 d]

I get snap called by the nuts, the villain had in fact hit runner runner flush. At the time I was annoyed with my poor luck, the river card is the only card in the deck that will bust me here but shortly after and on review I shouldn’t have busted in the way I did. Sure it is likely I have the best hand, but we are 2^nd in chips v 1^st and when I raise the river here there aren’t many hands that will call that I have beat and there are no hands that beat me that will fold to the raise, as such I think calling is the best option, in other words there are no river cards that should bust me in this spot if I am playing well. I bubbled the MTT from 2^nd and blamed it on bad luck when I could (and should) have realised that calling the river was the best play, I would have been left with around 13bb which would give me a chance to play shove fold poker.

Morale of the story is to check your play in hands and don’t always assume you have been unlucky with the cards and that the hand was out of your control, you might find spots where you had some bad luck but you compounded the misfortune with poor play. It is all too easy to put these kind of hands down as coolers but good players will save chips in some of these spots, weak players will instead go bust and then bemoan their luck without reviewing to see if they made a mistake.

I will be heading to Vegas on 27^th June so I won’t be blogging for a while, although I hope to have a few interesting things to write about when I return, until then good luck at the tables!

Winning the Masters Part 2

Final Table

In my previous entry I briefly described my route to the PKR Masters FT in July 2010, in this entry I will bring the MTT to a conclusion. The final table starts as follows:

Seat 1: NoWayKK - $166,884
Seat 2: xxSOLxx - $500,338
Seat 3: barx1210 - $247,303
Seat 4: BigbackMatty - $316,386
Seat 5: gowser4 - $234,036
Seat 6: hubalex - $70,763
Seat 7: ForFoxSake - $139,130
Seat 8: Dutchpower99 - $265,276
Seat 9: tsuga - $171,658
Seat 10: ShrpFeather - $168,226

The blinds are $5,000/$10,000 so I only have 14bb which isn’t great but if I can get one or two good spots then I can hopefully at least better my previous best finish in the masters, which was a 7th place. 4 hands in UTG opens to 3x with a 9bb stack, I am UTG+1 with 13.5bb and see AJo and fold, UTG range is pretty narrow here I am not in good shape versus their range, added into the fact there are still 8 other random hands to act this is a comfortable fold in this spot, it turns out UTG had AQ and one of the random hands was AK.

The next few hands are rags, I then pick up AQ and shove and get called by AQ and we chop, so my stack is around 10bb, a few hands after this it folds to the SB who min raises, I have 10bb and see KQo so 3 bet shove and the SB folds. I pick up a few small pots and chip up nicely when this hand develops:

Seat 1: NoWayKK - $190,247

Seat 3: barx1210 - $142,903

Seat 4: BigbackMatty - $322,586

Seat 5: gowser4 - $115,636

Seat 7: ForFoxSake - $293,530

Seat 8: Dutchpower99 - $350,276

Seat 9: tsuga - $736,196

Seat 10: ShrpFeather - $128,626

Moving Button to seat 4

NoWayKK posts ante of $1,600

barx1210 posts ante of $1,600

BigbackMatty posts ante of $1,600

gowser4 posts ante of $1,600

ForFoxSake posts ante of $1,600

Dutchpower99 posts ante of $1,600

tsuga posts ante of $1,600

ShrpFeather posts ante of $1,600

gowser4 posts small blind ($8,000)

ForFoxSake posts big blind ($16,000)

Shuffling Deck

Dealing Cards

Dealing [Qh Jh] to ForFoxSake

Dutchpower99 folds

tsuga folds

ShrpFeather folds

NoWayKK folds

barx1210 folds

BigbackMatty folds

gowser4 raises to $114,036 (all-in)

ForFoxSake calls $114,036

gowser4 shows [Qd Kh]

ForFoxSake shows [Qh Jh]

Dealing Flop [3h Qs 5c]

Dealing Turn [Th]

Dealing River [Kc]

gowser4 has Two Pairs: Kings, Queens

gowser4 wins $240,872 with: Two Pairs: Kings, Queens

I was expecting an open shove from the 7bb SB here with a wide range and had already decided to call if he open shoved, but in hindsight given it’s a fair size of my stack and losing drops me to 12bb, I think a fold here is slightly more preferable. In fact I do lose and end up short, so I then have to pick my spots for a while and shove to pick up blinds and keep a stack that has some fold equity.

Playing to Win and Getting Some Luck

We get down to 5 handed and I am now firmly in win or bust mode, when I get ATo in the cutoff:

Seat 1: NoWayKK - $172,094

Seat 7: ForFoxSake - $234,694

Seat 8: Dutchpower99 - $195,831

Seat 9: tsuga - $1,101,099

Seat 10: ShrpFeather - $576,282

Moving Button to seat 8

NoWayKK posts ante of $2,000

ForFoxSake posts ante of $2,000

Dutchpower99 posts ante of $2,000

tsuga posts ante of $2,000

ShrpFeather posts ante of $2,000

tsuga posts small blind ($10,000)

ShrpFeather posts big blind ($20,000)

Dealing [Tc Ad] to ForFoxSake

NoWayKK folds

ForFoxSake raises to $232,694 (all-in)

Dutchpower99 folds

tsuga has requested more time

tsuga is using the time bank

tsuga has 76 seconds remaining in the time bank

tsuga folds

ShrpFeather calls $232,694

ForFoxSake shows [Tc Ad]

ShrpFeather shows [As Kc]

Dealing Flop [Qc 8s 9s]

Dealing Turn [Jc]

Dealing River [8d]

ForFoxSake has Straight, Queen high

ForFoxSake wins $485,388 with: Straight, Queen high

This is one of the few hands I have had at the final table and it is a clear shove IMO, I get unlucky to run into a better hand but then get lucky when I suckout, I don’t think there is any other way to play this though and I get a much needed double up. I promptly lose a big pot check raising a flop as a bluff then barrelling turn and so drop to 12bb again in short time, I shove the next two hands with 77 and T9h and try to put pressure on where I can, while having very few hands to work with. I get lucky again when I shove 10bb with KJ and get called by A7d but I river a straight. Another player gets eliminated and 4 handed is quite cagey for a while, I pick up pots here and there and lose some too so don’t make much headway, then this hand is dealt:

Blinds are now $15,000/$30,000

Seat 1: NoWayKK - $289,854

Seat 7: ForFoxSake - $355,276

Seat 9: tsuga - $989,382

Seat 10: ShrpFeather - $645,488

Moving Button to seat 10

NoWayKK posts ante of $3,000

ForFoxSake posts ante of $3,000

tsuga posts ante of $3,000

ShrpFeather posts ante of $3,000

NoWayKK posts small blind ($15,000)

ForFoxSake posts big blind ($30,000)

Dealing [Ad 5h] to ForFoxSake

tsuga folds

ShrpFeather folds

NoWayKK raises to $90,000

ForFoxSake raises to $352,276 (all-in)

I get A5o in the BB and the SB opens, I only have 12bb and the effective stacks are 9.5bb so I have to decide whether to raise or fold, as I am playing to win I decide to shove and get the bad news....

NoWayKK calls $286,854 (all-in)

NoWayKK shows [Qd Qh]

ForFoxSake shows [Ad 5h]

Dealing Flop [Jh 7d Kd]

Dealing Turn [9s]

Dealing River [Ac]

....only to hit a miracle river card.

This luck allows me to pick up some more small pots (again without cards) and then this hand develops:

Blinds are now $15,000/$30,000

Seat 7: ForFoxSake - $905,130

Seat 9: tsuga - $902,382

Seat 10: ShrpFeather - $472,488

Moving Button to seat 10

ForFoxSake posts ante of $3,000

tsuga posts ante of $3,000

ShrpFeather posts ante of $3,000

ForFoxSake posts small blind ($15,000)

tsuga posts big blind ($30,000)

Dealing [8h 8c] to ForFoxSake

ShrpFeather raises to $469,488 (all-in)

tsuga shakes her head.

ForFoxSake has requested more time

ForFoxSake is using the time bank

ForFoxSake has 98 seconds remaining in the time bank

ForFoxSake calls $469,488

ForFoxSake shows [8h 8c]

ShrpFeather shows [Ah Jh]

Dealing Flop [9h Js Ts]

Dealing Turn [8d]

Dealing River [6h]

ShrpFeather has One Pair: Jacks

ForFoxSake has Three of a Kind: 8s

ForFoxSake wins $977,976 with: Three of a Kind: 8s

Shrp shoves all in, I think I have about 55% equity against his likely shoving range (I don’t want to discuss his shoving range here as I feel that it is unfair to disclose my thoughts on specific opponents in frequent spots in an open blog) even if I lose I am not out and I would rather player Tsgua heads up than Shrp and as I am playing to win I make the call. We flip and although he hits the flop I redraw on the turn and go into HU with a chiplead.

Heads Up

I get the better of the opening exchanges and this is the first major pot of the heads up battle:

Blinds are now $20,000/$40,000

Seat 7: ForFoxSake - $1,468,618

Seat 9: tsuga - $811,382

Moving Button to seat 9

ForFoxSake posts ante of $4,000

tsuga posts ante of $4,000

tsuga posts small blind ($20,000)

ForFoxSake posts big blind ($40,000)

Dealing [9c Qh] to ForFoxSake

tsuga raises to $80,000

ForFoxSake calls $80,000

Dealing Flop [3h 5c Qd]

ForFoxSake checks

tsuga bets $80,000

ForFoxSake raises to $240,000

tsuga raises to $727,382 (all-in)

ForFoxSake has requested more time

ForFoxSake is using the time bank

ForFoxSake has 84 seconds remaining in the time bank

ForFoxSake calls $727,382

Q9o is a decent hand heads up and I call the min raise, I decide to check raise the turn and Tsuga shoves over the top. I break down the likely hands here and decide to discard KK or AA or sets as Tsuga had a tendency to slow play these, this left better Queens that I was losing to, but Tsuga had seen me check raise before so I decided there might be a lot of air here or mid pairs that might be ahead, in the end I feel I am getting the right odds here to make the call:

ForFoxSake shows [9c Qh]

tsuga shows [Kh As]

Dealing Turn [4d]

Dealing River [2s]

tsuga has Straight, 5 high

tsuga wins $1,622,764 with: Straight, 5 high

I get some bad luck and lose to a runner runner straight, the very next hand I get QQ and double through AK. A few hands later and I get dealt a less than premium hand:

Blinds are now $20,000/$40,000

Seat 7: ForFoxSake - $1,270,472

Seat 9: tsuga - $1,009,528

Moving Button to seat 7

ForFoxSake posts ante of $4,000

tsuga posts ante of $4,000

ForFoxSake posts small blind ($20,000)

tsuga posts big blind ($40,000)

Dealing [2c 5h] to ForFoxSake

ForFoxSake raises to $90,000

tsuga calls $90,000

Dealing Flop [7d 4c 9s]

tsuga bets $80,000

ForFoxSake raises to $200,000

I open here with position postflop, my opponent donk leads which immediately rules out strong hands so I decide to rep a hand and raise:

tsuga calls $200,000

Dealing Turn [Qc]

tsuga bets $80,000

ForFoxSake raises to $240,000

I get called and once again Tsuga puts out a donk bet, it is so small that I am almost certain that it is a draw, maybe 56, T8 or JT, with the villain’s style of play it is either a draw or a set here. It felt too weak to fold to the min bet so I continue my line of representing a big hand:

tsuga calls $240,000

Dealing River [3d]

tsuga checks

ForFoxSake bets $320,000

tsuga folds

ForFoxSake shows [2c 5h]

ForFoxSake has High Card: Queen

ForFoxSake wins $1,068,000

I actually disliked the river as it meant one of the draws got there but I fire a small bet feeling that almost everything bar 56 was going to fold although at the time I was quite nervous due to the nature of the situation. Tsuga folds and actually had JTc, which I was surprised played the turn that way. I breathed a sigh of relief when the fold came and now had a commanding lead in the heads up. I soon doubled my opponent with A6o v ATo when they had less than 10bb but the final hand soon came:

Blinds are now $20,000/$40,000

Seat 7: ForFoxSake - $1,428,944

Seat 9: tsuga - $851,056

ForFoxSake posts ante of $4,000

tsuga posts ante of $4,000

ForFoxSake posts small blind ($20,000)

tsuga posts big blind ($40,000)

Dealing [6d 4c] to ForFoxSake

ForFoxSake calls $40,000

tsuga checks

Dealing Flop [6s 4h 7h]

tsuga checks

ForFoxSake bets $80,000

tsuga raises to $807,056 (all-in)

ForFoxSake calls $807,056

ForFoxSake shows [6d 4c]

tsuga shows [7s Jh]

Dealing Turn [Ad]

Dealing River [Kh]

tsuga has One Pair: 7s

ForFoxSake has Two Pairs: 6s, 4s

ForFoxSake wins $1,702,112 with: Two Pairs: 6s, 4s

I limped in, which I rarely do but get lucky to flop two pair versus my opponents top pair, we get it all in and I hold to take victory in PKR’s biggest guaranteed event.

Summary

Undoubtedly I got some luck in this MTT, some of it fairly obvious like winning flips or sucking out, but here is a quick overview of a few statistics:

I was involved in 40 all in hands, this is where either I was all in or I had called an opponent’s all in, of these I won 22 without a showdown, of the 18 that went to showdown I had an average of 57% equity (some of these were against short stacks hence equity is a little low), an average of 70% of my stack was at risk during these 22 all ins, I won 11, split 2 and lost 5 of these so clearly I won more than would be considered normal.

I got dealt 152 hands at the final table, of which I have classified them into premium hands, good hands and the rest, here is the breakdown:

Premiums 1

AA 0

KK 0

QQ 1

JJ 0

AK 0

AQs 0

I only got dealt 1 premium during the final table, and this was QQ and it was actually heads up!

Good Hands 23

TT 0

99 0

88 2

77 2

66 1

55 1

44 0

33 1

22 1

AQo 2

AJs 0

AJo 2

ATs 0

ATo 2

KQ 2

KJ 3

KT 2

QJ 2

QTs 0

TJs 0

So 23 of my starting hands I would consider good, although this obvious depends on the position I was in when getting dealt those hands and other factors, but it gives a brief illustration of the fact that I didn’t have a lot of hands so I as I was playing to win I was forced to play inferior holdings and as such I lucked out more.
Remember also that I lost with AA to 89c and to a runner runner straight when heads up. Overall I got lucky, but it isn’t really different to when you get a stream of good hands on a FT and win lots of pots from in front. You have to play with the cards and spots that arise, it is impossible to win with AA if you never get dealt it! I was happy with my play in most hands and was also overjoyed to have lady luck on my side in a big MTT. I haven’t been close to winning it since, but that doesn’t stop me trying!

Winning the Masters - Part 1

In July 2010 I won the PKR Masters, a $270 buyin MTT with $100,000 guaranteed prizepool. As this is PKR’s headline MTT and it is almost 2 years since I emerged victorious I thought I would write a separate blog entry about my win. This blog will list some key hands I played and my thoughts were applicable. but if you are hoping to read an entry on how to win the Masters then you are in for a big disappointment, as with any MTT you need a fair amount of luck in order to win and there is no sure fire recipe to guarantee a win.

As this is $270 buyin event, you may not be properly rolled to buyin directly, in which case you may decide to try and qualify via satellites. I want to mention briefly that while taking shots at qualifying is all well and good, satellites can be very damaging to your bankroll. The main reason for this is you have to win the satellite you are playing AND cash in the event you qualify for to see any return on your investment, this adds another layer of variance into the game, this is increased the more stages you have to go through before qualifying for the event. As such if you are just rolled say for $20 MTTs then you shouldn’t be buying into $20 satellites, you need to have stricter BRM rules when considering qualifiers. Exactly how tight these rules should be depend on how many stages you have to go through and also how confident you are of your chances of winning a ticket in the satellite. Some players are adept at qualifiers and expect to win a ticket a lot more often than the average, these players can be a bit more relaxed towards satellite BRM, those who struggle to win tickets, need to be a bit more careful otherwise their bankroll can reduce substantially with no cash return.

MrKeema's photoshopping skills in the PKR forum after my win

Early Game

The Masters has a 5,000 starting stack and 20 minute blinds, the first level is 10/20 so there is some room to play early on and you can play tight early or try and be a bit more active and win a number of small pots. I played a tight game early on and managed to win a few small pots in the first hour before this hand developed:

Blinds are now $30/$60

Seat 1: ThaPAbbot - $6,329

Seat 2: Ravenfeeder - $6,859

Seat 3: wesam1971 - $2,629

Seat 4: philguilli - $6,255

Seat 5: giorgit - $4,450

Seat 6: ForFoxSake - $5,424

Seat 7: xoxmanonxox - $5,495

Seat 8: thesaintsback - $4,860

Seat 9: brian27 - $4,110

Seat 10: piisaa114 - $3,589

Moving Button to seat 7

thesaintsback posts small blind ($30)

brian27 posts big blind ($60)

Dealing [8s 8c] to ForFoxSake

piisaa114 folds

ThaPAbbot folds

Ravenfeeder folds

wesam1971 folds

philguilli folds

giorgit folds

ForFoxSake raises to $180

xoxmanonxox folds

thesaintsback folds

brian27 raises to $540

ForFoxSake calls $540

I open from late position and the big blind 3 bets me, he has seemed fairly tight up till now so I put him on a big hand, there is potential for me to win a big hand if I can hit a set v an overpair, or if he has 2 overcards he seems likely to check low flops and I can win without hitting my set. Note here though that my initial raise of 3x has made the size of the 3 bet bigger which makes it a more marginal call with the 8s, if I had opened to 150 then I might have been 3 bet to 450 which makes it a much easier call.

Dealing Flop [Qd 8d Qs]

brian27 has requested more time

brian27 is using the time bank

brian27 has 118 seconds remaining in the time bank

brian27 bets $565

ForFoxSake raises to $1,695

I hit my set, but the pair of queens may hamper my chances of getting paid, but as he leads out I put him on a big hand, the only hand that he has here that I think he folds to a raise is AK, but I don’t think he would c-bet AK that often so I decide to raise

brian27 has requested more time

brian27 is using the time bank

brian27 has 116 seconds remaining in the time bank

brian27 raises to $3,570 (all-in)

ForFoxSake calls $3,570

ForFoxSake shows [8s 8c]

brian27 shows [Ah As]

Dealing Turn [5s]

Dealing River [3c]

brian27 has Two Pairs: Aces, Queens

ForFoxSake has Full House, 8s over Queens

ForFoxSake wins $8,250 with: Full House, 8s over Queens

We get it in as I had expected and I win a nice big pot.

A Nice Donation

After that hand nothing much happened for a while I won and lost small pots while generally playing tight and picking my spots. I hovered between 10bb and 20bb for a while, I 3 bet shoved QQ and got called by pocket 3s and doubled up and a while later I get another double up 3 bet shoving AJ v A4. The following hand then develops:

Blinds are now $2,000/$4,000

Seat 1: RINGOSTAR6 - $40,952

Seat 2: thesaintsback - $13,179

Seat 3: poloxon - $47,121

Seat 5: VKyller - $125,244

Seat 6: mcoupar - $55,787

Seat 7: ForFoxSake - $80,238

Seat 8: xxSOLxx - $66,379

Seat 10: dremelole - $60,598

Moving Button to seat 1

8x ante of $400

thesaintsback posts small blind ($2,000)

poloxon posts big blind ($4,000)

Dealing [Ac 7c] to ForFoxSake

VKyller folds

mcoupar folds

ForFoxSake raises to $10,000

xxSOLxx folds

dremelole folds

RINGOSTAR6 calls $10,000

thesaintsback raises to $12,779 (all-in)

poloxon folds

ForFoxSake calls $12,779

RINGOSTAR6 calls $12,779

Dealing Flop [3c As Ah]

ForFoxSake checks

RINGOSTAR6 checks

Dealing Turn [6d]

ForFoxSake bets $16,000

RINGOSTAR6 has requested more time

RINGOSTAR6 is using the time bank

RINGOSTAR6 has 99 seconds remaining in the time bank

RINGOSTAR6 raises to $27,773 (all-in)

ForFoxSake calls $27,773

RINGOSTAR6 shows [Ks Qs]

thesaintsback shows [4s Ad]

ForFoxSake shows [Ac 7c]

Dealing River [Td]

RINGOSTAR6 has One Pair: Aces

ForFoxSake has Three of a Kind: Aces

ForFoxSake wins $55,546 from side pot #1 with: Three of a Kind: Aces

thesaintsback has Three of a Kind: Aces

ForFoxSake wins $45,537 with: Three of a Kind: Aces

I get a nice gift as the guy bluffs with no fold equity and after a long while of playing shove/fold poker I have some room to manoeuvre. 

Aces Cracked

That room doesn’t last long though as I get aces cracked:

Blinds are now $2,000/$4,000

Button is at seat 10

Seat 1: NoWayKK - $89,267

Seat 2: xxmarkyxx - $135,365

Seat 3: ljfAces - $54,044

Seat 4: SideyBurns - $11,982

Seat 5: Greatfish - $91,426

Seat 7: ForFoxSake - $131,569

Seat 8: marcelluswa - $97,551

Seat 9: doudou972 - $65,799

Seat 10: poloxon - $43,521

Moving Button to seat 1

9x ante of $400

xxmarkyxx posts small blind ($2,000)

ljfAces posts big blind ($4,000)

Dealing [As Ah] to ForFoxSake

SideyBurns folds

Greatfish folds

ForFoxSake raises to $11,000

marcelluswa folds

doudou972 folds

poloxon folds

NoWayKK folds

xxmarkyxx folds

ljfAces raises to $53,644 (all-in)

ForFoxSake calls $53,644

ljfAces shows [9c 8c]

ForFoxSake shows [As Ah]

Dealing Flop [Qc 4c 2c]

Dealing Turn [3h]

Dealing River [2h]

ljfAces has Flush, Queen high

ljfAces wins $112,888 with: Flush, Queen high

This beat puts me back in shove or fold mode but at least I still have a stack. 

Flipping

I manage to get some shoves through and keep my stack limping along until this hand on the final table bubble:

Blinds are now $5,000/$10,000

Seat 1: NoWayKK - $187,884

Seat 2: xxmarkyxx - $31,282

Seat 3: barx1210 - $226,303

Seat 4: BigbackMatty - $313,096

Seat 7: ForFoxSake - $80,992

Seat 9: tsuga - $201,804

Moving Button to seat 9

6x ante of $1,000

NoWayKK posts small blind ($5,000)

xxmarkyxx posts big blind ($10,000)

Dealing [Ks Ad] to ForFoxSake

barx1210 folds

BigbackMatty folds

ForFoxSake raises to $79,992 (all-in)

tsuga folds

NoWayKK folds

xxmarkyxx calls $30,282 (all-in)

xxmarkyxx shows [3c 3d]

ForFoxSake shows [Ks Ad]

Dealing Flop [3s 5c 9c]

Dealing Turn [6c]

Dealing River [8d]

ForFoxSake has High Card: Ace

xxmarkyxx has Three of a Kind: 3s

xxmarkyxx wins $71,564 with: Three of a Kind: 3s

This was the first flip I got involved in during this tournament (I class a flip as anything that is 60-40 to 40-60) unfortunately I lose it. It is important to try and avoid flips wherever possible in MTTs and I have gone several hours before getting into my first one, this is partly due to me picking my spots well and open shoving rather than standard raising (shoving 15bb often helps avoid flips as players are more likely to fold a hand such as 44 for example, whereas if you open to 2.5x they may shove 44 as they think that they have fold equity). Avoiding flips has also been luck of course, the times I have 3 bet shoved I have had my opponents dominated, but when I shoved QQ for example I could have been up v AK, regardless of this my route to the final table was lower on variance due to this. 

Triple Up with AA

3 hands later I pick up AA:

Blinds are now $5,000/$10,000

Button is at seat 2

Seat 1: NoWayKK - $179,884

Seat 2: xxmarkyxx - $19,564

Seat 3: barx1210 - $229,303

Seat 4: BigbackMatty - $366,096

Seat 7: ForFoxSake - $47,710

Seat 9: tsuga - $198,804

Moving Button to seat 3

6x ante of $1,000

BigbackMatty posts small blind ($5,000)

ForFoxSake posts big blind ($10,000)

Dealing [Ad Ac] to ForFoxSake

tsuga raises to $20,000

NoWayKK folds

xxmarkyxx folds

barx1210 folds

BigbackMatty calls $20,000

ForFoxSake raises to $46,710 (all-in)

tsuga calls $46,710

BigbackMatty calls $46,710

Dealing Flop [4c 5c 5d]

BigbackMatty checks

tsuga checks

Dealing Turn [6h]

BigbackMatty checks

tsuga checks

Dealing River [3c]

BigbackMatty checks

tsuga checks

ForFoxSake shows [Ad Ac]

ForFoxSake has Two Pairs: Aces, 5s

tsuga mucks

BigbackMatty mucks

ForFoxSake wins $146,130 with: Two Pairs: Aces, 5s

I was short so the 2 callers could have a wide range and the board is not great but I managed to get a triple up and I make the FT with a short stack and this is where part 2 will pick up the action.