Play Online Poker

Yesterday I played a free satellite tournament, just to warm me up for the Freeroll on FullTilt.
There were 5254 players who did the same. The top 10 players are automatically qualified to the next satellite.  From the start I was playing like a rock, no more slowplaying good hands, whenever I had a big flop I’d showed it. In no time I went up from 1000 chips to 12000, putting me in the Top 100. Sometimes I was pretty unlucky, like getting beaten with a K flush with the Queen in my hand and the Ace on the table.

Three times I had to fight back to being in the top 100 once again. One time, losing almost 80% of my chips (about 24000). But I always got back in the top after playing 6 or 7 hands.

Once I folded KK because I wasn’t sure about my hand and how my opponent played the hand.
This is something I learned in the last 8 tournaments (highest finish was 46th, rest all above 200, so very bad results) on Fulltilt, never make a call if you’re not sure about your hand. And if you can check on the river, check, not raise in these circumstances. If you didn’t have him beaten at the turn, chance is you won’t beat him at the river, so check to save money if you’ll lose.

After one hour of playing, only 1500+ players were left. After 2 hours, only 300 played for the last 10 places. This quickly decreased due to the blinds and ante’s getting higher and higher every 5 minutes.

With only 80 players left I got AK suited and went all-in after my bet got re-raised. He called me and the flop paired my king, giving me a top kicker also. No chance for his pocket queens. Turn and river didn’t help him either. I doubled up and took my place into the Top 20.

Here I stayed for the rest of the tournament. With 105000 chips I was ranked 15th. The chipleader was playing with about 780000 chips.
I managed to double up again a few hands later, putting me in the Top 10. Now it was time to start concentrating a bit harder.
With the blinds reaching 12K, only the good cards where getting played. Every time someone had a pocket pair they went all in. If their stack was about 1/4th of mine and if I had good cards, I made the call. 2 times I lost, but 5 times I won.

With only 12 players left and me losing a big pot against the nr 2, I was the last in the ranking.
Oh no, I don’t want to miss the Top 10 after playing so good this tournament, I was thinking.
Big blind was 25k now with a 3K ante. Just before the big blind got on my position, I went all in with Ah 3d. The big blind called me with Kh 9c, costing him only 48000 chips.  Flop draw 3s 7h 9h, pairing his 9. I needed an Ace pretty bad or my tournament was over.
With another heart on the turn (Jack), I suddenly had more outs as my Ace would beat his King. So any heart card or an ace saved me. The river sealed my win with the 4th heart giving me the highest flush.

The next hand I got pocket queens on the big blind and was planning to make a significant raise to claim the pot before the flop. But one player went all in. With only one player left to knock out, I didn’t hesitate to call him, knowing he probably would have a big hand.
My suspicion was right, he showed AK, a classic duel in Texas Holdem. But the flop gave him nothing. The turn didn’t either, so it was all down to the river. But no Ace or king showed up and I kicked him out.

With this I also made sure I reached the last 10, winning me a ticket to the next satellite.
A little pop up came up telling me I’d won the tournament, a bit confused about this I was wondering, huh??? I can’t have won as there are others with more chips then me.
But there wasn’t a final table either, just play to the last 10, that’s it. So together with 9 others I’ve won my first tournament!!!!

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