Help on surviving the bubble.

I was wondering if you have any extra pointers for a guy who is always on the bubble in SNG tournies with someone consistantly stealing the blinds with the big blind about 20% of the stack.

He tried stealing the blinds and I went all in on KJ suited trying to defend my blinds and he called with 4-4. Nothing came on the flop for either of us so his pair of fours won. I ended up in 4th while doubling up his stack.

I would like help on how to defend the blinds, with what cards, and anything about surviving the bubble when the status you set for yourself early on was a tight agressive player.

this is probably the weakest part of my play, but here goes:

if you're down to 4 or 5, and the BB is 20% of your stack, you're already in big rouble. you've got 3 times around the table and your stack will be gone to the blinds. if your stack is this small (e.g. 500 to a BB of 100), you're no real threat to a big stack, so expect to get called if you push back. of course, the big stacks will call you with not the best hands, so this can work for you.

- if you've been playing tight aggressive, this might get you some respect, but probably not with a stack this small
- when you're this low, KJ suited is not the worst hand to go with, assuming you're first in the pot, or it hasn't been raised to you
- if you want to push back, go all-in (as you did) when you think you have a reasonable hand
- if you get a premium hand (AA, KK, QQ), consider just calling or doing a small raise - you'll give the impression that you're trying to conserve your stack, and someone will probably push you all-in (which is what you want)

bottom line - if you're the small stack, you will get pushed around. this is the position i'm in way too much of the time, and i hate it.

of course, those few occasions when i'm the big stack, i become mr bully to the smaller stacks.