Hungry, Hungry Hippo..!

When I was first told of the hippopotamus, 1972 or so, I was told that either one player or the other moved all his pawns to the 3rd rank before making a piece move.  He demonstrated it to me, and I did indeed find it a hard nut to crack.  He chose which pawn to move and when, responding to my moves, but he remained true to his theme of getting all 8 pawns to the 3rd rank before anything else.  Then his pieces manuvered behind his pawns defending them.

At some mysterious point, his structure busted open.  Not sure if it was an inspiration on my part or his own frustration through lack of play.

I mentioned it to our local master (one of two we have in the state), and he said that he would love it if I would try it against him, implying that he would have an easy time with it.  I replied that it wasn't really my bag, but we have another player who tends to be highly defensive, playing white or black, and does something sort of similar.  The master played him and had to sac an exchange to bust him.  I played the "hippo man" several times and always found his pattern just mysteriously fell apart at some point, and I never had to sac anything.

I think I read somewhere on the web about a computer busting player rated 2100 or so who regularly beats the world's best computers and programs with something that (if memory serves) is not that much different.  The computer supposedly burns too much time trying to differentiate the many equally frustrating possibilities and then starts moving too quickly making losing moves.