Play Online Poker

Since a couple of weeks PokerStars you can play some satellites for a regional championship here in Belgium, called ‘Pokerkampioen van Vlaanderen’ or ‘Pokerchamp of Flanders’ translated to English.

The first 20 in each day’s sattelite tournament will qualify to Sunday’s final, another satellite to the grand final held in October.
Yesterday was the 5th time I played in these daily satellites, but the first time I took the tournament serious like a real cash game. No more joking around and calling with crazy cards.

The first 5 or 6 hands I got were complete rubbish. I was folding them all. Then a few decent hands came by, like 10 J, 88, QK, 10 A. I only managed to win one pot with them, the pocket eight’s gave me trips on the turn.

With some minor hands after that, I actually won a few more pots, because the flop was always into my advantage. Within 4 hands time I won 2 pretty high pots. Once with 7 8 clubs, that made me a flush on the flop (J 2 K). I went all-in for about 1900 chips and got called by one guy, who hit two pair with his K J. So if no other King or Jack finds its way to the table, I was safe. It didn’t so I won the pot.
The second time with A8 off-suit I got a Full House on the flop (8 8 A) and slow played it. Another advantage I had in this hand was that I was on the small blind, so I could easily check and see what other players would do. In a 6-handed game and an Ace on the table, at least one player should make a bet. The 4th player in the game made a small bet, probably to see what others would do or letting us know he could have an ace. Then the button player made a re-raise. On my turn, I hesitated a bit and made the call. The players next to me all folded quickly and the initial raiser made the call also.
So what hands would they have? I was pretty sure one of them had the Ace (I’m guessing the first raiser) and one of them could have made trips with an 8, maybe the button-player? If that was the case, I was still way ahead. Only if a higher pocket pair than the 8’s on the table made trips, I would lose. Else the least I could have was a split pot with the last ace on the turn or the river.
The turn was a 4, nothing for me to get worried about, so checked again. Next player checked also and the button player didn’t wait to see the river and went all-in. So I was pretty sure he had the last 8 and was playing trips. But to do better than my Full House with the aces, I doubt it
Again I hesitated to call him, not giving away I have the possible best hand. For a second I thought about going all-in, but to get as much as possible out of the pot I just made the call, hoping the next player would call also.
Instead of calling, he went all-in. Could he have AA? That would beat my Full House. Or does he have the last 8? In my head, I played over his play again to be sure I wasn’t missing anything. In my eyes he couldn’t have pocket aces, so I made the call. It certainly would be very difficult to fold this one otherwise.
So my Full House AA 888, against A88 85 for the player next to me and A88 AK for the player on the button. Chances that I would lose are nil, only a split pot was still possible if the last ace hit’s the table. It didn’t and I tripled my chips, pushing me to the 18th place.

Then for the next hour, I kept on playing around the first 40the places with a minor setback after a bad call I made with AJ in my hands. I thought my pair of aces would be enough, but it could stand up against 2 pair. I lost 1/3 of my chips.
But with some good play and some bluffing every now and then, I always came back to the top 20.
Then player countdown started. 40 players left, 39, 38, … At the time only 8 players had to get busted I was playing on the 25th spot.

With big blinds, 35% of my pot and being the 2nd smallest stack at the table I had to be very careful what hands to play. No good hands came by and I folded everything. Then on the big blind I got K5 off-suit. 4 players called, 1 player went all-in. Of course I made the call as it would only cost me an extra 148 chips. Luckily I did. Flop made me trips with 55 J.
I went all-in instantly and got called by one guy who played for the flush, but also could spare some chips.
I showed my trips. With a Queen on the turn, a 2 on the river and none of them spades, I won the pot. Pushing me away from the last places.
The next hands I folded all, not wanting to take the risk and becoming the last player to drop out.
5 minutes later the sattelite tournament was over, I did manage to win one hand with my pocket Queens, but most importantly I qualified for Sunday’s weekly sattelite tournament final.

Now let’s see if I can get in the top 5 spot there and October’s final is very close then.

Yesterday I played my first online poker game since I’m back from Italy. That’s almost 3 weeks without playing poker.
It was a $1000 freeroll tournament on PokerStars. About 3500 players signed up, with 360 places paid.

At first I had some bad luck with the flops, holding KK and an Ace flopped. The guy who called my raise made a small bet. The player in front of me re-raised, so I had to throw my pocket Kings away as one of them was holding an ace. The showdown proved me right, both had aces and one of them 2 pair actually.

Sometime later I got QJ suited with QJA on the flop. On my turn I made a bet, about the size of half the pot, hoping someone has an Ace, but no K 10 or 9 10. Two players called. On the turn (5s) I made a pot size bet and my opponents folded gave up their chance to win a nice pot.

I was now playing in the 700 first places with about 2000 players left. I still had to be careful not to lose everything as there were plenty of big stacks at my table.
I then started folding poor hands one by one, the hands I played I usually won, so I was playing very tight. I had to, because the blinds where killing my stack. With the paid places in sight and in early position I folded QQ just to make sure I reached the 360. Again a wise decision, 3 people in the pot, AK suited, 77 and J10. Flop JJ3. Turn a K and on the river a 7 which made the pocket 7 guy a Full House.

In the meanwhile I saw that the player in play with the least amount of chips was 0, so I made it to the 360 paid spots. In my first tournament in 3 weeks time, immediately winning some cash, nice!

Just after that I finished on the 340th place, winning me 70 cents.
I could end up much higher if my pocket Queens (got them 2 times in a row, imagine that), but this time I went all-in, for about 2 times the big blind in total. 3 players called, one holding J9 suited. He won with two pair.

Today I played a $100 freeroll and again ended up in the money. 2300 Players in the tournament, me ending on the 135th place, earning me 13 cents. Not that much, but something

My $100 goal is coming closer and closer now.

After a great start in today’s tournament, I finished on the 208th place.

The first 4 hands I got were very good, only won 1 of them though, but what a win it was.
I had A 10 of diamonds with a flop 2 3 diamonds and 10 of clubs. Turn gave me the highest flush with diamond 5. I did a small bet to get the other people involved and it worked, 2 guys followed.  River turned the 4 of diamonds giving me a straight flush. Although I was pretty nervous now that anyone of the two other players could have the 6 of diamonds and beating my straight flush, I betted all in.
1 player called and luckily for me I won, doubling me up and placing me on the 27th place for now.
A few hands later I got pocket aces and made a minor raise, to see how many would call, but I only cashed in the small and the big blinds. Too bad, but at least I didn’t lose with them.

With AJ suited in my hands I started a small bluff, but it didn’t work as 1 player called me. Flop (7 9 8) gave me a straight draw, only needed the 10. Again I raised, but was quickly called. Turn did me now good with a 3. I made a minor bet now to see what my opponent was going to do, but he just called.
With almost halve my stack in the pot, the river gave me nothing but a Ace high. By now I knew I was beaten, but I made another bet to let my opponent think I do have something in my hands. Instead of folding he raised me. So there was only 1 thing to do for me and that was folding. Even if I went all-in he called me immediately and I probably lost everything then.

Seems like my bluffing skills need a bit of tweaking today, cause 30 minutes later I went all-in with KJ again on the flop (K 5 8). 2 players called and the showdown started. 1 player showed K8 and the other pocket 5’s giving him trips. I needed runner-runner to win.  A pair of jacks would give me a higher Full House. But the turn ended my dream for finishing in the money the first time.

I played some cards well, some cards bad, but I had a lot of fun today and that’s also important.

For my site this poker journey of me is turning out very good. My visitor stats are increasing day by day and are almost up at the same rate they where a year back, so thank you for visiting me.

Are there any players from Full Tilt Poker reading this?

I’m one of the many blogs that wishes you a happy new year today

My all your wishes come true!

A few months back I announced to drop Entrecard for different kind of reasons.
I promised to drop it with style, so the blog that advertised the most times on this blog would get all my remaining Entrecard credits that I have in my account today.

Well I’m glad that I have 2 winners, Isker from Isker Blog and WebbieStuff from Webbiestuffs.

Congratz and thx for advertising.

I hope you’re both kind enough to leave a little comment here

Happy 2009 !!!!

O, before I forget, a special thank you to the whole Entrecard community, it’s been a great year with you guys and girls, but I’m sure we’ll see each other again soon   PS: I’ve officially removed the Endtrecard widget now

After almost 1 year of displaying the Entrecard widget on this blog, I’ve decided to dump it.
But because I had so much fun on Entrecard, I’m going to dump it in style.
First of all I would like to thank the people who advertised their image on my Entrecard Widget.
Secondly a special thanks to all the nice people I’ve met due to Entrecard.
Graham, you’ve came up with a great idea and made a great site around it, congratz man!

But the real reason why I’m dropping it is the change in the advertising costs. Before you could have the possibility to advertise on any blog you want. True, you can do it now also, but it’s much harder due to the high costs.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m the first to say that premier blogs should be rewarded for displaying links to smaller blogs, but there could have been better ways than after the sudden change in the reward system.

To me the fun of being active on Entrecard was gone. I did keep displaying the widget, but I knew back then that I wasn’t going to stay on Entrecard if nothing should change.
Now my mind’s made up and it’s time to leave. But as I’ve said before, I’m going in style.
From the time I stopped advertising on other blogs till now, I’ve managed to get almost 9000EC just by advertising other’s images.
I’m planning to give all of these Entrecard Credits and any other credits from now on away to 1 lucky advertiser.
On January 1st 2009, I’ll announce who the lucky winner is and Ill transfer all the EC to his or her account.

How I’m deciding this? Well very simple, the one that applies to advertise his Entrecard Image the most on my site till January 1st, will be the winner. I’ve started counting from the 1st of November till now and I’ve got 10 advertisers with 1 time advertising each. So you all still got a fair chance to win my last EC’s.

Start advertising on my blog and win every EC I’ve earned till the 1st of January 2009, Happy New Year!!!