Optimum Bubble Strategy?

[benfranklin]

[ QUOTE ]


What is optimum bubble play?

[/ QUOTE ]

There have been a number of articles in the 2+2 Magazine recently about bubble play. Best check it ASAP, as the articles are taken down after 3 months.

[ QUOTE ]
How do you play hands / opponents differently around the button?

[/ QUOTE ]

This is a good place to steal blinds, assuming the blinds are relatively large by now. And your opponents will either tighten up to avoid getting knocked out on the bubble, or they will be trying to steal your blinds. So you need to steal from the first group and defend your blinds more against the second.

Greg Raymer talks about the "TV bubble" when the 2004 WSOP ME was down to 10 players. With only 9 going on to the TV final table the next day, many players tightened up. Greg started aggressively stealing blinds, and increased his stack by about $3 million during that period.

Relative stack size is critical here. Harrington treats this in great detail in his books.

[ QUOTE ]
Is there a difference in bubble strat betwen STTs and MTTs.

[/ QUOTE ]

In a STT, there are only 4 players left on the bubble. As a result, not many hands see a flop, and those that do are usually HU. In this situation, if either you or your opponent have a stack of less than 10 big blinds, the correct strategy is usually to push or fold preflop.