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.
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| 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
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.
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