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 A quick guide to bubble play
Following a bunch of posts on this site I decided to take a stub at the impossible mission of coming up with a quick guide to paying the bubble at Single table Sngs.
I play at pokerstars (mostly turbos) so this guide is based on the stars blind structure.
First thing first – poker is a highly situational game and the correct answer to 90% of poker questions is ‘it depends’.
Bubble play is much more situational then early phases of the Sng, which makes the task of trying to set ‘hard rules’ to this phase of the game very hard, so take everything written here with a grain of salt.
I consider bubble play as the part of the Sng when there are 4-6 players left, with 3 getting ITM.
The ‘typical’ situation in bubble play is 1-2 big stacks, 1-2 short stacks and 1-3 medium stacks.
Blinds are significant but not too huge compared to the average stack – BB is usually between 5%-15% of the average stack.
I will divide this guide into four parts – big stack, medium stack, small stack and desperate stack.
Some general points:
By the time you get to bubble play you should have reads on your opponents – are they tight, loose, passive, aggressive, how did they accumulate their stack etc…
Bubble play is where a lot of people change gears – tight becomes looser, passive becomes aggressive – you have to pay attention to those changes in gears and adopt your game to the new ‘type’ of player.
On the bubble there is another very important read that you should develop on each player – what is his goal in the Sng – there are generally two types – those who are there to win, and those who are there to get in the money.
Those who are playing to win have no problem taking risks to build their stack to a position that will allow them to win, and are willing to take the risk of being busted out.
Those who want to get ITM will try to cruise into the money by letting the other players bust each other out.
One important aspect of bubble play is that you have to constantly reevaluate your position – are you big stack, mid stack, small stack, what are the stack sizes of the other players, and adjust your strategy accordingly. And by constantly I mean at every hand, and before any decision in the hand. If you take only one thing from my ongoing rumbling let it be this – “You have to know where you are standing at all times”
Playing big stack
When you are in the big stack (50% more then the mid stacks or 50% more then the average stack, and one of the top 2 stacks) your goal is simple – you want to put yourself in a position to win it all by accumulating more and more chips.
This means that your main goal is not to knock people out but to accumulate more chips.
Depending on the table structure it may be to your advantage to have people last longer. Specifically you want the players whose goal is to make it to the money to last longer, because they will bleed chips to you.
The other thing you want to do is to maintain your lead, and not let other players become the big stacks too.
You want to play aggressively and to take as many pots down without reaching a showdown.
Playing aggressively does not mean play every hand, it does mean that you should raise most of the hands that you play and pretty much ignore that call button.
Playing aggressively also means playing aggressively through the entire hand. Do not show aggression preflop and then check/fold when the flop missed you. Play aggressively preflop and postflop.
Use every trick in your arsenal to play aggressively – raise preflop, check raise, limp raise, stop & go, anything you have - use it.
You want to keep all the other players confused, you don’t want them to be able to put you on a hand or a range of hands.
You want to put pressure on the players that want to get ITM. Try to avoid confrontation with middle stacks who are aggressive unless you do have a good hand. This is where position is very important; you are better off raising to pots when aggressive players folded already.
Since most hands do not go to showdown you can play pretty much any 2 cards. If I am aggressive from early position I prefer to have a hand that has some chance of winning if I get called, from late positions any 2 cards will do.
Remember that you have a fold button too, if you raise and someone reraises you AI, think before making an automatic call. If it is a small amount you should call ofcourse, and the size of the stack allows you to gamble once in a while, but there is no shame in folding once in a while.
When you bet look at the bet from the eyes of the player you are betting against. 500 chips may be only 10% of your stack, but if it is 50% of his stack he is pot committed, so you may as well put him AI by betting a 1000.
And if you want villains to call make it a bet they can call with their stack, not a bet you would call with your huge stack.
Playing middle stack
When you are middle stack you have two goals – you want people to get knocked off and you want to increase your stack to have a competitive chance of winning it. When you are middle stacked you have to think about winning, not about getting ITM, but to do so with smart risk management.
Your playing style as middle stack is highly dependant on the behavior of the big stacks, if they are aggressive you want them to dominate the table without dominating you. Let them run over the small stacks and give them a fight when they put the pressure on you.
If the big stacks are not aggressive then by all means you should be the aggressor. Again you have to consider your opponent’s stack. Even tight big stack players will call most raises that are 5%-10% of their stack – raise it so they will feel it, and don’t be afraid to push it.
Put pressure on the short stacked who want to get ITM. You don’t have to put them AI every hand, 3BB raise will usually scare them off.
You want to conserve chips for the hands you are playing, and play them aggressively. Minimize the amount of hands you are limping with. When middle stack, you want to raise or fold.
Don’t play suited connectors – they are good at multiway pots but not heads up
I don’t like to play low pairs either unless I want to blind steal with them.
Play mid-high pocket pairs and A9 and up very aggressively.
KT and up are also very competitive hands on the bubble when you are in late position.
On the bubble I do not like to play Ax where X<8, those are easily dominated hands, and can cost you a lot of money.
I also do not like to play Qjo, Qto, as they are also easily dominated.
When you are middle stacked playing around 1.5 hands per orbit on average is a good figure. You want to steal the blinds at least once every 2 orbits to keep you stack size, and try to increase it on your good hands.
Playing short stack
I separated short stacks into two sections – short stack and desperate stack. For me desperate stack is a position when you know that you have no leverage to push people off pots, and you will get called no matter what you do. This is usually when your stack size falls below 4BB.
So short stack is anywhere from 4BB to about 75% of average stack.
When you are short stack your goals are:
1. Don’t get into desperate stack situation
2. Make it ITM
3. Double up
When you are the short stack you have to expect pressure on you constantly and you will have to gamble a bit to stay alive.
You are basically in a push or fold situation. By that I mean that you should be willing to put all your chips in a hand that you decide to be involved in. It does not necessarily mean that you have to push preflop every hand. Stop and Go can be a profitable move when you can limp and still have enough of a stack to actually scare people off.
You want to play your hands heads up. If you see the middle stack and big stack both go into the pot you want to stay out of the way unless you have a really good hand, hope that the middle stack will bust and you will get one step closer into the money.
Since your goal is to not get into desperate stack situation you will probably have to push at least once per orbit.
You want to be the only who is pushing and not calling AI, to have at least some folding equity for the other players. In an aggressive table it means that you have to push before the other players do, and this means pushing from positions other then the button.
You want to push hands that are not easily dominated (see the section in the middle stack about it) this means that I prefer to push T8s to K3o.
Generally speaking big stack will make looser calls, especially on the blinds , so when you have a decent hand you want to play vs the big stack, when you have a medium hand you want to steal with you want to go vs the medium to short stacks.
If you have another short stack at the table and you have a chance to attack him by all means do.
Desperate stack
If you are in desperate stack mode (4BB or less) – pray.
Contrary to the popular view I will take my chances blinding out waiting for a good starting hand (or for somebody to bust) rather then pushing it with mediocre hands. My reasoning is that I will get called anyhow, so I prefer to have a hand that will give me a decent chance to win.
When you see a multiway pot (hopefully 3 or more players beside you) limp with anything, you have a small chance to win the hand but if you do you quadruple up and you have a fighting chance.
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Originally Posted by a500lbgorilla
