--disclaimer: I took waay too long to publish this...sorry...
Well, I worked really hard this season, entered the finale as the chip leader by a large margin, and failed to even cash...
If you've ever sat down and played against a player who just couldn't lose to you than you'll know what happened to me when I played against Ashley. I started off promising, as chip/points leader I get to pick my table and seat after everyone else. I naturally picked to have supreme position on Chris. This is a generally good strategy usually since I would put Chris as a top tier player in our game, but bonus points because I won our season bet of most wins. Chris would have to make specific statements I created instead of the usual call/fold/raise/all-in/check action words. If he screws up he has to drink 3. We also bet on how many times he'd screw up and I even let him set the line, (at 5?) and I knew he'd definately screw it up more than that so I took the over(and eventually won that bet) Well, I was sitting at the table with the most chips, to the left of one of the best players and also whom I'd get to laugh at every hand: Example: "Fold" equated to him saying "Fred is my poker god" etc... I also picked Craig to be first out and won that peice of the bet when I think he got a little bit unlucky with flopping a flush vs the nut flush. I only picked Craig to be first out because I knew with his stack, he was the only one willing early on to risk it for more profit. So he'd either be out early or be a contender early. He was at the other table, with most of the players that started with lesser chips and after his elimination (or maybe the next...) there needed to be a rebalancing. Of course the poker gods can't give me too much satisfaction and the program sent me to fill in Craig's old seat. Strategically, I was fine with this, with my stack I should be able to just about run over the other shorter stacks. Unfortunately, I suffered a few set-backs, a couple suck-outs and a few other stacks moved up to my level. Jon and Heck got their stacks up to over 30K and I had about 45K so I tried to bully them a little and for the most part it worked. My problems started while trying to eliminate the short-stack in Ashley. It seemed no matter what the cards were, she hit when she was behind, I didn't get there when I was drawing, etc... Then I made a huge bluff-gone-horribly-wrong against Jon when I raised preflop with A-3c offsuit. John called and the flop was all clubs, K-high. He checked, I bet he called. Turn was a brick and so I continued my betting and he called. The river bricked as well and he checked, I bet out and he shoved for not much more. I couldn't even call with Ace high and I know/knew he had something, just not as strong as a flopped flush until he shoved... So I cut myself in half, maybe more that hand and John jumped up to probably the chip leader at the table. I couldn't beat Ashley in a hand so it was back to the grind of trying to take everyone else's (John and Heck's) chips, slowly but surely. They were playing a lot of hands, at least Heck was.... Jon kind of went into "coast to the final table mode" I was able to get myself back into a decent size when we got to the final table, however, I ran into some bad luck, doubled a few short-stack players up and then when it was my turn, it wasn't meant to be. My AK lost to a middle pair to cripple me and 3-4suited shove against 5 limpers lost(after hitting a 4) to A-7.
I'm satisfied with winning (almost) the most money this season.... by far the most during the regular season. I'll probably get my name on the trophy someday, but that's really not the "complete" goal, right? It's probably my lot in life to be "that guy" who hasn't gotten "there" yet....(pitty party's over!) If Chris ever gets me the game log for the finale I'll probably remember a few hands, at least the ones that knocked people out and the order of which they went out. I can say that Jon ended up winning the trophy again. That actually hurts a lot more than it should, he's won 3 of the last 6 or something crazy... I wish I didn't try my 3 barrel bluff on him when he flopped that flush, he was basically on a huge downswing up to that point.... ah well, I did get him to fold Queens against my Jacks earlier, though, live by the sword, die by the sword, I guess... To another season next fall!! Please get here quickly!
