Big jump to $294.57. I took second place and a 'chop' in two 20$ sngs yesterday.
The chop was interesting. We were down to the last two, and we had a coin flip when I was the chip leader, and I lost it, so the stack sizes were 3 to 1 in my opponents favor. He offered to send me 10$ if I sat out the duration and let him win. We had been chatting so I decided to take a chance and trust him at his word. Sure enough, he sent the money, so I got 2nd place plus 10$ for taking a dive when I was down in chips at a high blind stage.
I also pulled a really cute maneuver in the 2nd tourney. There was a 'table captain' from the very first hand, who had a habit of sniffing for weakness and making outrageous reraises when a tiny reraise would have been enough to take the hand. This is obviously a candidate for a well timed slow-play, which went like this:
ME: JJ, TC is in the BB, there have been two limpers, so I can't just limp in. The TC hadn't backed down to anything less than 8BB, so I went with 4BB, which could easily be interpreted as Big Slick.
The TC calls, of course. He had been calling lots of raises, and wagering that his opponent had missed the flop or was too scared to bet a small pocket pair into any flop, so I expected his call. The two limpers folded, so everything is according to plan.
Flop J-x-x
Perfect: Now the question is: How can I appear weak enough that he'll come over the top? Oh! How about a micro-bet.
I make the smallest bet possible, and he reraises me to all-in. Mission accomplished. I call, and he doesn't have a pair or a draw, and fails to catch runner-runner ace to beat me.
This play shouldn't work on observant or timid opponents, but against an agressive lunkhead, it's a decent play.
