Quinner

Ever since joining this forum I've been thinking harder and harder about my game, and found that in STT, when I get near the bubble with say a stack of approx. 2000 chips, and the blinds are around 100/200, I shove....and shove....and shoooooooove my chips in (probably far far too often) then I should. For one thing, it's a pretty easily exploitable strategy, someone picks up pocket Aces, they limp, I pick up some mediocre hand like KQ, and they bust me, pretty much every time on the bubble. It's happened enough and I really don't like it.

I guess the issue here is, I hate limping (especially on the button) but raising puts in almost 25% of my stack!! Doesn't this mean I'm practically committed to any hand I decide to play and should therefore just shove the rest of my chips in anyway?

Probably stupid micro stake limit thinking, so help me out, what do you guys do nearing the bubble in a sit'n'go (assuming a 2000-2500 chip stack)?

What hands to push, what hands to fold, how aggressive to be etc. I think at this point you could say I'm too aggressive, or at least too eager to throw all the chips in the middle.

Graham

I think you need to take into consideration your stack size, the blind levels and your opponents stack sizes before making a push. If you are short stacked, pushing is probably the only option, if not, then just play how you were playing before. If you are bubbling quite a lot then you must be doing something right, but maybe your trying to push too often. Your opponents are picking up on this and waiting for premium hands to bust you. Steal a few blinds, but don't go overkill with the pushing.

Its tough to say what hands to push with without knowing your position in chips relative to your opponents. For example if you are small blind and your opponent is big blind (getting very low) and you have 5x more chips its not going to cripple you to push into him. But, if you are the short stack and its not going to cripple your opponents to call then their range will open up more in an attempt to bust you.

I may be way off on what you were asking, but its hard to say without knowing blinds, stack sizes, etc. Post a few hand examples and we can analyze much better.

Cerberus

Being aggressive at bubble time is a great plan when it works and seems awful when it doesn't. It's never a mistake to be the aggressor. You're putting the other players on their heels and making sure they know they have to go through you to make the money. Like graham said, adjust how often you're pushing. There's a great saying: third time is the adjustment. If you've pushed twice with mediocre hands and you are about to do it again, fold it. Keeps them guessing. If you happen to have a monster that third time, push, as they may see you as bullying (which you are) and call with something easily bustable.

Richard~

I think you might want to try to work on your early and mid game strategy a bit. Should you have a bigger stack come bubble play...jackpot (sit back and play premium hands, let someone else work for you). Mixing it up throughout the SnG is also a good way of getting a feel for some of the other players. bubble play can really suck when you're shortstacked and there probably aren't that many magical fixes. Pushing with Kx and under can be a bit dangerous also because you may very well have big stacks calling you down with any ace

ReefAquarium

Poll;
you need at least.

a. 3 high
b. a red or a black card.
c. deuce and a cut card.
d. 27 offsuit
e. why bother looking ... pretend to look .... count out stacks and then just shove.
5. Q5 offsuit.

__________________
Not smarter than a grade 5 or Kristy Sea

Quinner

rofl!

So basically throw on 'money' by pink floyd, invest in a good blindfold, hug a bible, pray for forgiveness of thy poker sins, and ship it.

BBC Z

Actually, you are probably playing about 75% correctly. On the bubble, you'll find that your villans will be looking for reasons to fold, so you want to give it to them. What you need to be on the constant lookout for is 'What is the minimum number of chips that I need to bet in order for everyone to fold'. You can find that out by getting a sense of the table as the blinds increase and obviously what is working for other players. You'll likely find that a 2-3bb raise will steal the blinds. If you get playback on the bubble by a non-thinking player, give it up and get right back on that horse. With 2k chips and 100/200, I'd raise to 500. It's a non-committal raise if you get pushback, but enough that ppl won't come after you with nothing. FYI keep an eye on chip stacks, you may find the guy with 1K pushing all-in and you being forced to call..

I find that there's either no other aggressive players (leading me to accumulate chips) or theres one other guy and we kind of come up with an implicit understanding that he'll raise if I fold and he'll fold if I raise while taking the bubbles chips.

Oh.. ya.. When people always say "Raise 3BB + 1BB per limper" they're talking about deeper stack generic situations. You don't need to feel ashamed for raising less than that when the blinds are big.

Also, don't limp. Either open for a raise or fold. Don't go all-in if anyone limps infront of you either. You want to start the action with a raise, pick up the blinds uncontested and move on to do the same thing next hand.

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13Cards is the worst thing to happen to Canadian Poker ever.

blackmagicz

Need more situational analysis. I can tell you to push on the button and I can tell you to fold on the button. Without more specifics (as Graham point out) we will be giving generalizations which fundamentally is not going to enhance your game.

More situational examples will help you play better as you will eventually be in a similar spot with minor variables.

Monteroy

Never limp is pretty much a good rule to live by in this situation.

You really cannot make too big a mistake by open shoving any 2 cards, but you do need to be aware of the stack sizes and types of opponents in the blinds. If you have 2,000 and the BB has 24,000 from playing every hand then it is probably just best to let go the marginal hands, even ones like 10 9 suited since they will call with hands like Q 10 a lot of the time.

If the blinds are nits then shove without looking at your hand. If they wake up with AA or KK so be it.

I would be more careful about shoving after a limper or two, that again really depends on the type of player the limper(s) is/are.

Henjon

Also - at least on the lower levels where I also play - sometimes I think the best option is to try and fold yourself into the money. A situation that occurs every now and then is something like this:

Player A: about 4000 chips
Player B: about 3600 chips
Player C (you): about 1300 chips
Player D: about 1100 chips

Blinds 200/400 - antes 25.

Here player D will get blinded away before you do unless he's not winning a pot. Often he will be quite tight and wait until it's almost too late (say when his down to 500 or something like that) before he pushes. Then he almost certainly will get called by one of the big stacks and - hopefully - get busted out. Of course you could take your chance with some medium hand (say K7off e.g). But why? Even if the others fold you're still way behind. Even if they call (and you will almost certainly be an underdog if they do) and your hand wins you're still behind and still most likely to finish on 3rd place. So I play passive in this situations, unless I don't believe that player A and B are very tight and despite of their big stacks only will call my pushes with their very best hands.

If I'm player A I will try to consolidate my lead instead and push against B and C cause I know they have all reason to fold unless they don't have a premium hand (and you can't do much when an opponent has that anyway), thereby increasing my chances to win once the bubble's gone and we're ITM.

But I' m far from an expert and still struggles with this bubbles to. One of the most difficult ones (seems to occur quite often to) is when every player's amount of chips is in a very narrow range. Say between 2200 and 2800. How to play then? I still struggle very much with that...

blackmagicz

Ok...lets edit some things here:

Player D most likely will be shoving as should you. Player A/B don't have enough chips to sustain a hit with a marginal hand so they will most likely be folding any pair under 77 and anything less than A10.

The object at the bubble is to be shoving any Ace any K....sometimes any Q depending on your mood.

Don't be afraid to push because even if you get called most instances you have 1 or sometimes 2 live cards.

Waiting for someone to get blinded down puts pressure on yourself as well because you are hoping that the other short stack does not magically double up through a random hand. Plus being aggressive and trying to play through the bubble allows you to double up and then use the added chips to hack away at both the bigger stacks and steal more often. In the end it can mean the difference between 4th and 1st....

Henjon

I agree that this play would be more correct if the other players played reasonably good ICM-poker. And as said I would probably push with say at least K8s+ or something like that if my read was that player A and B was tight. Problem is that many players in this situation loosen up their calling requirements more. I guess some think like this:

"If I knock him out we'll be ITM"
"If in the ITM the game will soon be over and I can start a new one (its boooring to play the bubble)" (or have a beer or phone a friend or something like that)
"My stack is big enough for me to be in good shape even if he wins"

It may be just coincidences but I have tightened up my bubble play in this kind of situations and so far find myself little more often ITM than before. Sometimes I'll even finish 2nd without having to do anything myself because the two bigger stacks immediately confronts each other all-in as soon as the bubble is gone.

If the smallest stack push and get no calls I of course immediately have to adjust my strategy since I'm now the smallest stack myself.