Optimum Bubble Strategy?

[benfranklin]

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What is optimum bubble play?

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

[TripDaddy]

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You did good.

I go crazy aggro around the Bubble, with or without a big stack. Usually this means I'm gonna go deep into the money or not at all.

Picking on the medium stacks works best. Shorties call out of desperation and big stacks call because they can (if you're a shortie). You want to put people to a decision when your stack is big enough to hurt them.

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Define crazy agressive. Do you mean pushing with 72o when checked to? Do you mean pushing UTG with K9s? Or do you not even look at you cards and make decisions based completely on position and table conditions?

I am trying to figure out if my hand matters at all. I understand that if I have the button and the blinds are medium stacks, I can hammer them, but aside from that, I get a bit lost.

Also, do you guys every keep the Small stacks in the game (giving them a walk, calling their raise and then folding no matter what on the flop, etc.)? Meaning, how much if at all do you manipulate the short stacks? just so that you can continue to steal from the medium stacks?

I have tried doing the above and only end up giving away chips!!

[TripDaddy]

Thanks Ben. I will go check out the mag ASAP!