Interesting situation in a 1400 player $15k. The chip leader stopped playing about 2 hours before it ended. When we got down to 2 tables I started thinking about changing my play to outlast him.
Somehow when we got down to the final table of 8 players, I completely forgot and played a hand I might not have. At the time I had 22bb as did the ex chip leader.
1st was $2100. 8th $250.

How would this affect your play, if at all?

With both of you at 22BB or so there is really not good reason to change your strategy He has enough chips to go around he table several time and your going to be dropping as well. I would play my game and forget about him.

Originally Posted by zedesq

Interesting situation in a 1400 player $15k. The chip leader stopped playing about 2 hours before it ended. When we got down to 2 tables I started thinking about changing my play to outlast him.
Somehow when we got down to the final table of 8 players, I completely forgot and played a hand I might not have. At the time I had 22bb as did the ex chip leader.
1st was $2100. 8th $250.

How would this affect your play, if at all?

I would be chipping up from him as much as possible and if i see others wanting to take his blinds, i would simply be folding and letting them do the battle against each other while i can easily ladder up
ICM strategy

In the case of the 22bb at hand: there was no reason for you to be battling without any premium in the hand

Good luck in the future

Originally Posted by Luvepoker

With both of you at 22BB or so there is really not good reason to change your strategy He has enough chips to go around he table several time and your going to be dropping as well. I would play my game and forget about him.

I would have done the same

As I understand it, the question is, if it should change our strategy, that someone is sitting out on the final table with a 22BB stack, when we have a similar stack. And as far as overall strategy goes, I will say no. If we dont play, because we want him to blind out, we will also blind our ourselfes, so thats definitely not an option. There is also the risk, he might suddenly return, even after hours of absense.

However when someone is sitting out, it does obviously influenze, how we play a hand, since there is now one less player sitting between us and the chips in the middle. Say for instance they are on our direct left, and we are in small blind seat. Then we can definitly defend more by calling, because we know, big blind is always going to fold. After the flop though we are just playing poker, and its like any other hand.

I do hate losing to sitters when maybe I could outlast them. The key word is maybe, if I change my game now at the end, is that a good idea. I have been outlasted online when the sitter keeps winning, that is painful. lol That particular time I had changed my game and tried to just outlast him, and paid less attention to everyone else, very bad idea....
So like someone else mentioned try to forget about him and hope the other players fight over his blinds.