Sorry for the delay on this week 4 wrap-up. There won't be any hand replays this post mostly because there weren't many interesting hands to share! I ended up finishing in 3rd place out of 13.
A few big pots were won, mostly just by having the goods against people bluffing into me. I didn't make any hero calls or put too much pressure on others. I was sitting in pretty good shape with 6 players left, but the blinds started getting very large and I went card-dead. By the time we were 4-handed, there were two large stacks and two short stacks (myself included in the latter).
At this point I'd like to write a little bit about bubble mentality. The bubble occurs when there is one more player than there are places played. For example, if you're paying out 3 places, then 4-handed is "on the bubble." The first player to go out 4-handed becomes the bubble-boy (or girl), because they finished one place out of the money.
Generally, players tend to tighten up when they're on the bubble because they don't want to play marginal hand that might get them eliminated. A player might raise with a weak ace or connector on the bubble but he's probably not going to call a raise in front of him.
As the chip leader, it's your duty to exploit this tightness. How many monster hands are usually dealt out 4-handed? Not too many. In fact, the fewer players in the game, the lower the chance a big hand will be dealt out. Aggressive play is rewarded the most on the bubble because the blinds are big, people are less likely to have a calling hand, and they're playing much tighter because they don't want to be eliminated from the prize money. It's unlikely you'll pick up a caller let alone a re-raise, so why not chase that free money?
This is basically what happened to me in this game. Blinds were 2500/5000 and two of us were on the short stack with about 35k chips (the others around 80k and 110k). Neither of us wanted to get cracked first, so we were playing just to outlast each other and get into the money (and earn more league points in this case). Our blinds were raised every single time and we couldn't call because our hands were just brutal.
I managed to get a big ace on the button, so I went all in. The two chip leaders folded, earning me both blinds. I was now a little bit ahead of my short stacked compadre. On her next big blind the small blind chip leader put her all in. She called with J-9 suited because she had to (she only had 4 BBs left). He had Q-3 offsuit and ended up tripping his queens. I was in the money!
I got absolute crap the next two rounds and eventually pushed my miniscule stack with 10-5 offsuit. I ran into A-K suited and neither of us hit, so he won with bigger high cards. This game was a good reminder of how paralyzing it can be when you're the short stack on the bubble. Against better judgement you tighten up and eventually get burned down even more.
Week 1: 3rd place of 12 ($20 profit / 6500 points)
Week 2: 9th place of 12 ($15 loss / 1000 points)
Week 3: 7th place of 13 ($15 loss / 2000 points)
Week 4: 3rd place of 13 ($20 profit / 6500 points)
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