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.

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