Another Frog Tournament Win / Reg. Season Title

Whew. Well, it's been about 24 hours now, and I've just about recovered from that last tournament. It was a long one and hotly contested, despite actually having only a median number of competitors (about halfway in between our largest and smallest fields of the past).

I stuck by my strategy and relied on the style of play with which I'm most comfortable, playing very conservatively, and it truly paid off. The first step was a very surprising development barely halfway through the tournament, when Dustin was knocked out by his own daughter. I'll freely admit that this took a lot of pressure off and changed my needs significantly both as they related to that one tournament and the regular season race - Dustin can be an aggressive player I don't match up well against so his departure allows me to be a lot more relaxed and cautious, and since both he and I were tied in the regular season standings meaning either a second or first place finish above the other will take the title I was able to sit back and nurse my stack several times viewing just making it to the top four with enough of a stack for a stab at the top two a good goal.

No doubt, though, it almost didn't happen. I did end up taking the stacks of a few all-in opponents and growing a significant chip lead, holding just over 50% of the chips when the field shrunk to 3 players - but both of my opponents (my good friend Mark and my wife Pam) wisely know how to take advantage of my conservative play and bought a very long series of hands with raises I would not call, eventually putting me clearly out of the lead and potentially slightly in third place. As is often the case, though, patience paid off, and I caught the right hands to play slowly, giving me the chance to jump back and take out one opponent with about three hands, and then a similar leap back and overall win in two hands a bit later. It was, without a shred of doubt, a deeply bitter victory, as both my friend and my wife are still looking for their first tournament win, and to have them both be so close and be the one to snatch it away again - let's just say it was far from a happy moment for me in that regard.

So, I have the fourth win and the regular season title, and also wrenched the all-time wins lead away from Dustin, who is no doubt already dreaming about wrenching it back away from me. Time to look ahead to the big one, our annual season tournament of champions in a few weeks (the end of this month). Personally, I'm rooting for Pam or Mark to take that one, as they both qualified with second place finishes in past tournaments, and it would be supreme justice for one of them to take their first win in the big annual tournament - both played outstandingly well last night, and I can see either of them taking it as real possibility.

Frankly, my wife has gotten scarry-good. She knows my philosophy and style well too, and only the cards really make the difference for me anymore with her - so the next time I don't get the cards and am up against her, I'm toast.

Tonight's Strategy

This will be a tricky beast to conquer tonight. Dustin and I are tied for first place in the regular season standings, with only tonight's tournament remaining as an opportunity to earn points. What that means is this:

• If we both make it to the showdown (not impossible but not likely either), the winner of the tournament wins the regular season title.
• If either of us makes it to the showdown (last two seats) and the other does not, that person automatically wins the regular season title.
• If neither of us makes it to the showdown, we remain tied, and the regular season title will be decided in a tiebreaker match to be scheduled seperately.

It makes for a fascinating strategy question. My biggest concern is that I will be over-conservative, viewing the game purely defensively at first as an exercize in outlasting Dustin, and then opening up to take a safe stab at any points for a regular season title. That could prove dangerous by keeping me from staying in to see the flop on questionable hands, perhaps the one I will need to bolster my chipstrength. The danger is further exacerbated by the competitor list, likely to include some I have the most trouble with, including Michelle (who plays a loose, large-calling game that my strategy doesn't match well against) and, more recently, Greg (who played exceedingly well for awhile at our last tournament, also in a style I found difficult to read and to play against). To do well, I'll need to balance my normal playstyle with a willingness to bet higher and call higher than normal with medium-strong hands, based on a read of opponents.

I've also got a little alterior hope for this evening, specifically that Greg gets a win or a second-place in tonight's game. He remains one of the only regulars who hasn't earned a qualifying slot in any of this year's tournaments yet, and I'd really like him to qualify for the annual grand championship at the end of the month... so I'll be secretly rooting for him, too.

Foiled by Technology

On Wednesday, I played through a few single-table tournaments to kill a little time. The first two were frustrating, but they were really just a warmup of frustration preparing for the third...

In the first tournament, I performed well up until the usual four-player slowdown (when everyone tightens up, hoping anyone else will go head-to-head all-in and allow them to passively advance to the "money spots", or top three placings), but then took a horrible beat going all in with pocket aces against K Q suited, and seeing two queens land on the flop and turn. It only took a second all-in and a reasonable draw beat to end that first venture.

In the second tournament, I intentionally committed some poker hari kari when it became obvious after about 20 hands that I was in a table full of overaggressive players who would not let a single hand go by without a large, over-the-top preflop raise (usually 125 even in the 10/15 round). Since I knew I would just end up getting frustrated and probably losing anyway (I am ususally a fairly conservative player and won't take wild risks), I just began going all-in pre-flop with anything... pocket pairs of any size, suited cards with at least one facecard, or suited consecutives... I knew I'd get caught eventually, but I did manage to take very satisfying revenge before going out, on at least four of those over-aggressive players who kept getting caught unwilling to go all-in after their over-the-top initial raises.

In the third and final single table tournament, I was able to play within my own comfort range style, and I took a significant lead. I then hanged back for awhile, until a couple of almost consecutive hands with high pocket pairs (kings and aces respectively), and in both cases I was bizarrely fortunate enough to not only catch a lot of aggressive opponent action as I slowplayed the pairs, but to catch the trips, and then have someone else go all-in before me, masking my own play. After those two hands, I had a commanding chip lead, with more than 50% of the chips on the table in front of my own hand. I know how to play a commanding chiplead online, and I have a very high success rate when I get that far, leaving little that can stop me.

Of course, one of the only things that can stop me is technological failure. Sure enough, with just five players left, the game stalled, and it became quite obvious with just a little investigation that the error was on EmpirePoker's end. Knowing my chip lead was so great, I kept the window open overnight (hoping it would re-establish, and knowing it is likely that my competitors would have closed the window or blind out), but found the window self-closed the next morning. Yesterday evening, I received an email from EmpirePoker apologizing for the error and awarding me an "even" split of the table prize ($10)... frustrating, since I was fairly confident that my chances at winning the first prize ($25) in that particular tournament were better than an odds-on favorite.

Ah, well. Time to turn my attention to the large matter at hand: the upcoming Poker Frog tournament, which potentially could well determine the regular season champion.