Playing against a ghost

Tournaments are strange beasts. They're about as different from cash games as it's possible to be. One of the differences between these two poker styles, which I hadn't thought about much before, figured prominently in the final tournament I played last night. It was a no limit hold'em sit and go, and one of my opponents sat out after becoming the chip leader. In a cash game, sitting out doesn't penalize you in any way. The size of your chip stack stays constant while you're away from the game. Not so in a tournament! Every time the blinds roll around to your seat, they're deducted from your stack. That's because in a tournament, you're always dealt a hand, even when you're sitting out. The hands of players who are sitting out get auto-folded to any bet. It's an odd feeling to be playing when one of your opponents is sitting out; it's kind of like playing against a ghost. You never know if or when the player might return to become a living opponent once again. I think the one-time chip leader in last night's last sit and go was actually not physically near his or her computer at the end. The reason I think this is that while it's a legitimate strategy to sit out for periods of time in a tournament, it's suicide not to return to the table when your stack gets seriously low; you'll wind up getting blinded off.

I made it to the final three players, one of whom was the ghost and the other of whom was the current chip leader, with a massive stack. All I had to do was outlast the ghost, and I'd be in the money. The problem was, I was seriously short-stacked myself. I didn't actually have enough chips to be assured of folding my way into the money ahead of the ghost, so I had to play my way there. On hand 63, I lucked out when I hit a straight on the river; that boosted my stack enough to enable me to fold my way from there into the money :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands place winnings

MTT   HORSE    4500   500       6    36    34        0
SNG   NLHE     4500   500       6    10     4        0
MTT   8-Game   4500   500       6    58    37        0
SNG   NLHE     4500   500       6    35     5        0
MTT   HORSE    4500   500       6    12    45        0
SNG   NLHE     4500   500       6    67     2     9450

delta: $-20,550
Sit and go no limit hold'em balance: $1,270,300
balance: $8,949,939