i can't stop being the bubble boy! i need help!

[awakuni]

i'm normally a cash game player but i play the occasional cheap weekend tournament and lately the last couple of times i've played i've have been the bubble boy. once as the short stack and once with an average stack. does anybody have good bubble strategy because i really feel as if i'm just flailing around without a real plan and i'd like to stop being the bubble boy. specifically i'd like some ideas about how to play with a short, medium and large stack during the bubble period specifically with a fast blind structure. should i gamble more? take a race early? stay passive and play position?

[tomek322]

with average or above stack I try to steal a lot, if the table is allowin it. Be the first in, RR late position players you think are stealing. standard stuff. I generally do like zero calling on the bubble. Raise or fold.

Small stack, I play patiently, looking to RR people that may be stealing. Make sure it is someone that your stack is a significant portion of his. Nothing worse that RR a big stack giving him 2.5:1 and losing to any two.

[awakuni]

could you further expand on your concept of "standard stuff" because i think that is the kind of knowledge that i'm lacking.

[BarryLyndon]

Play like 100 more tournaments, evaluate, get back to us. 2 tourneys is way too small a sample size. Post specific hands and situations where you felt that you may have missed out on value / overplayed a hand.

Barry

[awakuni]

it's true that two tourneys is not a very big sample but right now i'm just looking for some general strategy tips during the bubble period. i think a lot of my confusion comes from hand ranges and what is good, and where can i play them. for example should i raise a-9 utg when i've been raising about two hands per orbit. can i call a big button raise with k-j suited from the bb when i have 6bbs left, especially with 11 players left and only 10 getting paid? these are some of the issues coming up.

[kurtkatt]

i think u can find good discussion on all this in the anthology thats stickied on top of this forum.

u play a lot of 6max eh? a9 is more or less always a fold, esp if youve been that aggro. kj hand is kinduv tough, first off try not to put yourself with 6bb going into the blinds, second. who is button? id probably go with it most of the times unless i thought button didnt know what bubble or stealing was...

but study endgame stuff from anthology and HoH2, play some sngs and small mtts (turbos?) where u can get a feel for this stuff cheaper and more timeeffective than grinding sundaytourneys and play bubbles once in a while..

[BarryLyndon]

[ QUOTE ]
it's true that two tourneys is not a very big sample but right now i'm just looking for some general strategy tips during the bubble period. i think a lot of my confusion comes from hand ranges and what is good, and where can i play them. for example should i raise a-9 utg when i've been raising about two hands per orbit. can i call a big button raise with k-j suited from the bb when i have 6bbs left, especially with 11 players left and only 10 getting paid? these are some of the issues coming up.

[/ QUOTE ]

Download pokerstove and start reading a lot of 2+2 posts, these issues come up everyday. The issues range from miraculously stupid (what do I do with AK here on the button at 10BB?) to relatively intelligent. Also start lurking the HSMTT.

Start thinking of everything in terms of ranges - what range of hands does this pusher have? You seem familiar with EV from your questions and you know that everything depends on your opponent and situation. So keep thinking in those terms.

"General" questions like "should I raise with A9 from UTG" are kinduv pointless without stack sizes, game situation, table dynamic, blinds/antes, and so on. It might not even matter if you you've been overly aggro or not depending on your stack size and the players to your left - pushing may be a "default" with A9 here, or it may be closer. The same goes with the KJ example - what's the difference between 10th and 9th? Between 9th and 1st? Is there another player ready to burst the bubble? Can you still steal from SB/BB? How terrible is this pusher - is he pushing ATC? Does he love his J10? No reads? So many questions.

Just post specific hands and start sorting them out.

Barry