PGT was again a big success with solid numbers on all days, with this being such a huge month of Poker, people have lot to choose from, so even though our numbers dipped from last time we were pleased with the overall turnout. We have been taking feedback on structures, prize-distribution, formats etc, after taking all the review we have been able to refine PGT and is now the number one poker series in India where the best players in the country come for their shot at Glory. The POY Leader-board is shaping up pretty well and with 12 Lakhs at stakes it could get highly competitive in the end. We are planning to make our last event our featured event. The regular format of 5k, 12k, 25k and 50k will be replaced by 10k, 24k, 50k and 100k, so will be a much bigger event, this isn’t final yet and we are still contemplating what would be the best for the poker economy at that point, we will make a formal announcement once we make a final decision. We are also in midst of planning something huge, its a new series and if everything works out, it will be huge and I am sure all the players will love it, its something just for the new players and people building their bankrolls, more on that real soon.
Personally this is how all the tournaments at PGT went for me, I am not mentioning my thought process in any hand, if people ask a question on a particular hand, I will more than gladly give my thought process, but don’t feel like doing it for all the hands now:
5k: played pretty tight for most part, no major hands. Bustout hand 150-300 (25) utg limps, phil on btn makes it 1500 I go all in for 6k with TT in the sb and run into Jasven’s AA in the bb.
12k: I ran pretty deep in this one, few interesting hands:
100-200 short stack shoves 650, I reshove 5200 on CO (bounty hunting!) with 89, bb Bharat Naidu calls with JJ, shorty has 66 board runs out QT976, rivered a straight to double up.
1k-2k YJkim limps, btn limps, sb calls, I look at KQhh and shove 20k from bb, KIM calls with QTss rest fold, I hold and dbl.
1.5k-3k I open shove 33 on the button for 48k, raj in sb calls with AK, I hold and chip upto 80k.
1.5k-3kk I min raise k2o shorthanded, Kishore M calls from bb, flop comes Qh 8h 2d, he check calls 4200. Turn 4 check check, river 4 he bets 8k with 5k behind, I call he shows KJ.
2k-4k Raman shoves 40k from sb I call with AK in bb, he has J8 and wins the 40-60.
2-4k I open button for 8k, Kishore in bb puts it in with JQ (was shortstacked), I call with AJ and loose that.
3k-6k Bustout hand, I shove 28k with AJ, Arindam in sb calls with JQ, hits a Q and that was that.
25k Main event:
200-400 Uday Patil opens for 1200k utg, I call with QQ in MP rest fold. Flop is Kh 4h 7d, he bets 2k I call. Turn is 4 check check, river is 9 he bets 3750 I call, he shows KK.
200-400 I open KJss for 800 on 7600 stack, Amit Varma calls, flop 556 I bet 1350 he calls, turn is a 3, I check he puts me allin, I fold he shows AQ.
300-600 I shove 25hh for 5100 utg, Hussain calls with AA in bb, gg me and Congrats to him for winning the tournament and being the new PGT CHampion!!!
50k Highroller:
Just gonna talk about few hands since they were so many interesting hands in this, definitely the best big buyin tournament in India. The structure is just so suited for a high rollers, 6 max with antes from start and deep starting stack, just makes it soooo much fun.
200-400 I open 56hh to 1k, Kishore (K) calls sb and Dushyant (D) calls bb. Flop is 4d 7c Td, K checks, D bets 2k I raise to 5500 only D calls. Turn is Ts, D check calls 6k. River is a 3 and he check taaaaaankkkkkkkkkkk calls my shove, I show my str8 and he mucks.
800-1600 I open KQ to 3200, nitesh shove 24k, I call he shows QTss, I hold.
2-4k I shove 50k on btn with KJo, bb Porous on 30k stack calls with AQ and holds.
2-4k Harshad opens for 13200 I shove 23k with 33 (we r playing 4 handed) he calls with AJ and hit a J to win and bust me.
Pretty pumped for the APT, there is a satellite where CR is adding 5 seats to a 10k rentry to APT Main Event, this is probably only the 2nd time we are having a money added event in India which is sick value or players, I figure they will get 30 people with 10 rentries atleast, which would mean they would be giving seats to 13 people. I would recommend everyone to come and try and secure their seat through this satellite. Its at 8:30 pm on Saturday at CR.
Mentorship Program has been going great, since its a big group I have split them into people who can come for live session in Goa and those who cant. Its been a little slower for those who can only attend online classes than those who were able to come down to Goa. Anyways, we have been making good progress and should be just matter of time before a lot of them start showing results, I can already see a lot of their games improving. Although time consuming, I have always enjoyed teaching, so its been fun and am looking forward to getting atleast one or two sikos from this group. Will be blogging regularly during APT, also if u guys have any hand advice questions, pls post in the forum, lot of active threads with good discussions, Join IN!