Escape velocity

At one point I wrote a chess blog in addition to this poker one. Since chess and poker have commonalities, some of my chess posts have ideas I can steal for poker posts :-) Here's what I had to say in a chess blog post with an identical title, written on January 24, 2015:

One of the wonderful features of blitz is that it allows you to subvert the traditional purpose of a chess game, which is to checkmate your opponent. Blitz allows you to aim solely for a time win. If you think you can think just faster enough than your opponent to make enough "good enough" moves to cause him to lose on time, no matter how far ahead he is materially and positionally, I say go for it! The ultimate artistic triumph of this form of subverted chess is to have only your king remaining at the end. I almost achieved that rare distinction in the second game I played last night. I had only my king and one pawn, while my opponent had a king, a queen, and a pawn. My king did a little soft shoe routine between two squares near the middle of the board while my opponent's time ran out.

I call this type of win an "escape velocity" win. Escape velocity is the speed a rocket must reach in order to escape earth's gravity. In order to achieve this, a lot of fuel must be burned, and at some point the section of the rocket which contained the now-spent fuel must be jettisoned. The part of the rocket which reaches outer space is necessarily much smaller than the original rocket. In an "escape velocity" blitz win, when the time advantage one has over one's opponent is big enough, pieces can be jettisoned with impunity, in order to get one's king into "outer space" - alone but untouchable, since one's opponent simply has no more time :-)

An escape velocity win in a poker tournament is when you min cash with virtually no chips - just enough to fold your way into the money. That's what I did last night; when the money bubble burst, I had just 42 chips to my name.

style flavor buy_in entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE   174000 26000       6      97   24    22   337000

delta: $137,000
MTT NLHE balance: $23,418,668
2020 balance: $16,196,343
blue distance: $1,073,000
balance: $78,004,353